Discovery & Weird News

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Extinct animal was just hiding under a rock

Scientists find long-lost insect after an 80-year absence.

Beneath a single tree on an island 500 kilometres from Port Macquarie, an insect previously thought extinct has been literally uncovered by biology student from Sydney University.

When Maxim Adams lifted a rock beneath a banyan tree on Lord Howe Island’s northernmost coastline, he was not expecting to find a long-missing animal.

And when he saw an intrusion of large, wingless cockroaches swarming where the rock had been, it took him a moment to realise the significance of what he was seeing.

“I lifted the first rock under this huge banyan tree, and there it was. For the first 10 seconds or so, I thought ‘No, it can’t be’,” Adams says.

‘It’ is Panesthia lata – or the Lord Howe Island wood-eating cockroach – a species previously though to have been wiped out by the arrival of rats on the island in the 1910s.

Adams and his supervising professor Nathan Lo proceeded to spend a week searching for more colonies of these previously vanished arthropods, but to no avail, this was the only group found.

Still, it’s a coup, and although Lo recently wrote of the perseverance of related cockroach on neighbouring islands, the specimens uncovered by Adams are genetically distinct.

The rediscovery and genomic analysis of the species further highlights how physical isolation can lead to evolutionary divergence.

“These cockroaches are almost like our very own version of Darwin’s finches, separated on little islands over thousands or millions of years developing their own unique genetics,” says Chair of the Lord Howe Island board, Atticus Fleming.

“The survival is great news, as it has been more than 80 years since it was last seen. Lord Howe Island really is a spectacular place, it’s older than the Galápagos islands and is home to 1,600 native invertebrate species, half of which are found nowhere else in the world.”

What’s in a name?

There are 11 described species of the genus Panesthia, most of which reside along Australia’s east coast, feeding on rotten wood that is broken down by specialised cellulose-eating enzymes in their digestive system.

After re-discovering P. lata in July, Lo’s team will now turn its focus towards studying the species’ habitat, behaviours and genetics.

They also expect to conduct further studies on Lord Howe Island to better understand how the group found beneath the Banyan tree was able to survive.

However the researchers believe that a new name might be needed for this species, with early observations suggesting that rather than living inside rotting logs, the species may actually favour rocks like the one they were found beneath.

“We found families of them, all under this one banyan,” says Senior Scientist Nicholas Carlile from NSW’s Department of Planning and Environment.

“But despite its common name suggesting they are wood-feeding cockroaches and that they burrow in rotting logs, we now believe they are more of a ‘rock-roach’, with rocks forming an important component of their habitat, possibly due to their co-evolution alongside the ground foraging Lord Howe Island Woodhen.”

https://cosmosmagazine.com/news/extinct-wood-feeding-cockroach-rediscovered/

 

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Mysterious 'Large Object' Detected Near Titanic Wreck Finally Identified

An unexpected sonar “blip” first detected in 1998 near the wreck of the Titanic has finally been identified.  

“We didn’t know what we would discover,” veteran explorer PH Nargeolet, who first spotted the blip, said in a news release. “On the sonar, this could have been any number of things including the potential of it being another shipwreck. I’ve been seeking the chance to explore this large object that appeared on sonar so long ago.”

OceanGate Expeditions has been sending crews in a submersible to document the condition of Titanic for decades. During one of this year’s trips, a team that included Nargeolet checked out the anomaly near the legendary wreck. 

As the video above shows, it was not another shipwreck. Instead, the team discovered an unexpected volcanic formation at a depth of 2,900 meters (9,514 feet) that Nargeolet said was “teeming with so much life.” 

OceanGate is calling it the Nargeolet-Fanning Ridge, named for the veteran diver and mission specialist Oisín Fanning. 

“We are astonished at the diversity and density of the sponges, bamboo corals, other cold-water corals, squat lobsters and fishes that are thriving at 2900 meters deep in the North Atlantic Ocean,” OceanGate Expeditions chief scientist Dr. Steve W. Ross said in a news release.  

Ross, who is also a research professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Center for Marine Science, added: “Uncovering this previously unknown ecosystem also provides an opportunity to make a comparison to the marine biology on and around Titanic.”

The life found on this natural reef may differ from what is now thriving on the nearby artificial reef that Titanic has become. 

Earlier this year, OceanGate released the first-ever 8K footage from Titanic, showing the wreck to be deteriorating. 

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https://www.msn.com/en-gb/travel/news/mysterious-large-object-detected-near-titanic-wreck-finally-identified/ar-AA13m0JG?ocid=mailsignout&li=BBoPWjQ

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by CaaC (John)

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Cleopatra’s long-lost tomb could be hidden in mysterious tunnel

Ever since her tragic death in 30BC, the location of Queen Cleopatra's remains has beguiled archaeologists.

Now, one expert leading a dig in Egypt believes that she may have finally found her tomb - having uncovered a mysterious, 4,600ft-long tunnel.

The tunnel, which Egyptian authorities have described as a "geometric miracle", is beneath the Taposiris Magna Temple - the Great Tomb of Osiris - which is close to the ancient city of Alexandria.

Kathleen Martinez, a Dominican self-taught archaeologist from the University of San Domingo, said that if her theory about the burial site is true, then it would be the "most important discovery of the 21st century".

"As a result of 10 years of study of Cleopatra's historical character ... I need to come to Egypt to the field to see the remains of this temple to be sure that these remains have the possibility of being the lost tomb of Cleopatra," she said in a recent video interview with the Heritage Key website.

"After three months studying the area, I realised it was the perfect place for Cleopatra's tomb. Nobody ever came out with this idea. If there is a one per cent of a chance that the last Queen of Egypt could be buried there, it is my duty to search for her."

Egyptian authorities have extended the archaeologist's permit to continue digging in the area, said the self-styled Cleopatra obsessive.

Her theory is based on the discovery of Greco-Roman architecture and coins in the area, as well as a cemetery - which she says raises the possibility that a royal tomb is close by. The team also found beheaded statues, including one of the Goddess Isis.

Ms Martinez says that as a self-taught archaeologist with a background in criminal law, she can bring a new perspective to the hunt for the Queen of Egypt.

"I don’t think 100 per cent as an archaeologist, because my first training is as a criminal lawyer, so I took Cleopatra as a case,” she said.

Cleopatra ruled as the Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51-30BC. She died by suicide after her defeat by the Roman Empire to avoid being paraded around Rome as a trophy.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/cleopatras-long-lost-tomb-could-be-hidden-in-mysterious-tunnel/ar-AA13SaNm?li=BBoPWjQ

 

 

Edited November 9, 2022 by CaaC (John)
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4,000-year-old head lice comb found inscribed with phrase using the alphabet

The comb was made by the Canaanites, an ancient people that lived in what is now Israel and Palestine around 4,000-5,000 years ago.

A tiny ivory comb inscribed with the first ever full sentence found written in the Canaanite language has been discovered by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The comb, which dates back to around 1,700BC, was unearthed at Tel Lachish in Israel - a major Canaanite city state in the Biblical Kingdom of Judah.

The inscription on the comb reads: “May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.”

The alphabet was invented around 1,800BC by a Semitic people living in the Levant. Shortly after, it was adopted by the Canaanites – an ancient people that lived in what is now Israel and Palestine around 4,000-5,000 years ago. Before the discovery of the comb, the only Canaanite inscriptions found were limited to just two or three words.

The phrase inscribed on the comb is made up of 17 Canaanite letters that form seven words. The engraving is very finely detailed, with letters measuring just 1-3mm across.

“This is the first sentence ever found in the Canaanite language in Israel. There are Canaanites in Ugarit in Syria, but they write in a different script, not the alphabet that is used till today,” said study leader Prof Yosef Garfinkel, of the Hebrew Univeristy of Jerusalem's Institute of Archaeology.

“The Canaanite cities are mentioned in Egyptian documents, the Amarna letters that were written in Akkadian, and in the Hebrew Bible. The comb inscription is direct evidence for the use of the alphabet in daily activities some 3700 years ago. This is a landmark in the history of the human ability to write.”

The comb is made from elephant ivory and measures roughly 3.5cm by 2.5cm. On one side it has six thick teeth that were used for untangling air and 14 fine teeth for removing head lice and their eggs on the other.

As ivory was an expensive material, it’s likely that the comb belonged to someone of high social status – an indication that even wealthy Canaanites suffered from head lice, the researchers say.

https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/4000-year-old-head-lice-comb-found-inscribed-with-phrase-using-the-alphabet/

 

Edited November 9, 2022 by CaaC (John)
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World’s oldest meal found in 550-million-year-old fossils

Australian researchers have found remnants of algae in the digestive systems of ocean-dwelling Paleozoic invertebrates.

Most of us can remember what we ate for our last meal. Ediacara biota, the world’s oldest large organisms, on other hand, might have more trouble answering that question – they’ve been dead for 550 million years.

But now, a team from the Australian National University (ANU), have found the answer. In a collaboration with Dr Ilya Bobrovskiy from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, they managed to identify the remnants of the last meals of a pair of Ediacara biota fossils found in Russia in 2018. It turns out they ate algae from the ocean floor.

They found that one of the two creatures – a slug-like creature called Kimberalla – had a mouth and gut, and digested food in the same way that modern animals do.

The other – Dickinsonia, which looked a bit like a ribbed flatfish or a very large trilobite and measured 1.4m long – was a more basic beast with no eyes, mouth or gut, and absorbed food through its body as it moved along the ocean floor.

“Our findings suggest that the animals of the Ediacara biota were a mixed bag of downright weirdoes such as Dickinsonia, and more advanced animals like Kimberella that already had some physiological properties similar to humans and other present-day animals,” said Bobrovskiy.

By analysing the fossils in search of preserved phytosterol molecules - natural compounds found in plants – they were able to determine that the creatures lived on a diet of algae, which were abundant at the time.

“Scientists already knew Kimberella left feeding marks by scraping off algae covering the sea floor, which suggested the animal had a gut,” said the study’s co-author Professor Jochen Brocks of ANU.

“But it was only after analysing the molecules of Kimberella’s gut that we were able to determine what exactly it was eating and how it digested food.

“The energy-rich food may explain why the organisms of the Ediacara biota were so large. Nearly all fossils that came before the Ediacara biota were single-celled and microscopic in size.”

https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/worlds-oldest-meal-found-in-550-million-year-old-fossils/

 

Edited November 24, 2022 by CaaC (John)
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Amelia Earhart mystery deepens as hidden text found on panel thought to be from her plane

FRAMES - 1/7

New evidence has come to light in the mystery of the disappearance of the pioneering American aviator Amelia Earhart, who vanished in 1937 amid an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Researchers from the Penn State University have used advanced imaging techniques to re-analyse a metal panel, found on the island of Nikumaroro in 1991, that is believed to have come from onto Ms Earhart's aircraft. Their scans revealed hidden text on the weathered aluminium panel that could help to identify it - and confirm whether or not it did come from the missing plane. If the latter is proven correct, the discovery could add weight to the popular theory that Ms Earhart made it to Nikumaroro after contact was lost with her as she approached Howland Island, one of the last waypoints on her planned route.

Ms Earhart - along with her navigator, Fred Noonan - disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean in mid-1937 during her attempt to become the first woman to fly around the globe.

The pair, flying in a Lockheed Model 10-E Electra, were last seen departing from the city of Lae, New Guinea on July 2, on one of the final legs of their journey. However, their plane never arrived as expected at their next stop at Howland Island, which lies nearly halfway between Hawaii and Australia.

According to the radio logs of the the United States Coast Guard Cutter Itasca - on station at Howland to support the flight - in one of her last transmissions, Ms Earhart broadcast that her plane was running out of gas, and only had half-an-hour left.

Despite rescue efforts that lasted 17 days, covered a whopping 150,000 square miles of the Pacific and cost the US Coast Guard and Navy a then-record-breaking $4million, no conclusive physical evidence of the Electra 10-E or her crew were ever found.

Nearly 18 months later, on January 5, 1939, Ms Earhart and Mr Noonan were declared dead - and their disappearance became one of aviation's most enduring mysteries.

Explanations proposed ranged from the prosaic - that they simply crashed into the ocean and sank after running out of fuel - to the outlandish, with one popular conspiracy theory suggesting that Ms Earhart survived the flight, assumed a new identity, and moved to New Jersey.

One location searched in the immediate aftermath of the disappearance was Gardener Island - now known as Nikumaroro - which records said had been uninhabited for 40 years. Aircraft from the US Navy battleship Colorado flew over the island as part of the rescue efforts around a week after the pair vanished.

A subsequent report from the USS Colorado's senior aviator to the Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics read: "Here [on Gardener] signs of recent habitation were clearly visible but repeated circling and zooming failed to elicit any answering wave from possible inhabitants and it was finally taken for granted that none were there."

(Curiously, the official summary published by the USS Colorado's commander, one Captain Friedall, made no mention of the island appearing to have been recently occupied.)

"At the western end of the island a tramp steamer (of about 4,000 tons) lay high and almost dry head onto the coral beach with her back broken in two places. The lagoon at Gardner looked sufficiently deep and certainly large enough so that a seaplane or even an airboat could have landed or takenoff [sic] in any direction with little if any difficulty.

The report concluded: "Given a chance, it is believed that Miss Earhart could have landed her aircraft in this lagoon and swum or waded ashore."

Nikumaroro was the target of a series of eleven later expeditions conducted by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR - pronounced "tiger") with the aim of determining whether Ms Earhart did end up on the island.

The group have reported the discovery of various artefacts on Nikumaroro - including improvised tools, a size-9 woman's shoe heel (Ms Earhart reportedly wore a size 6), a strangely-shaped piece of clear plexiglass and a weathered aluminium panel, around 19 by 23 inches in size.

According to TIGHAR head and aviator Richard Gillespie, the panel - which he found in 1991 - matches one that can be seen covering a window on the right side of the Electra 10-E in a photograph taken of the plane when it departed Miami on June 1, 1973.

Some experts are sceptical about this theory. In 2017, analysis by the New England Air Museum, however, noted that that the unique pattern of rivets seen on the panel matches those seen on the top of the wing on a Douglas C-47 Skytrain - a military transport aircraft that did not enter into service until late 1941, years after Ms Earhart vanished.

Furthermore, a C-47B is recorded to have crashed elsewhere in the Phoenix Island Group during World War 2, with villagers having said that they transported aluminium from that wreck to Nikumaroro.

Nikumaroro was the target of a series of eleven later expeditions conducted by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR - pronounced "tiger") with the aim of determining whether Ms Earhart did end up on the island.

The group have reported the discovery of various artefacts on Nikumaroro - including improvised tools, a size-9 woman's shoe heel (Ms Earhart reportedly wore a size 6), a strangely-shaped piece of clear plexiglass and a weathered aluminium panel, around 19 by 23 inches in size.

According to TIGHAR head and aviator Richard Gillespie, the panel - which he found in 1991 - matches one that can be seen covering a window on the right side of the Electra 10-E in a photograph taken of the plane when it departed Miami on June 1, 1973.

Some experts are sceptical about this theory. In 2017, analysis by the New England Air Museum, however, noted that that the unique pattern of rivets seen on the panel matches those seen on the top of the wing on a Douglas C-47 Skytrain - a military transport aircraft that did not enter into service until late 1941, years after Ms Earhart vanished.

Furthermore, a C-47B is recorded to have crashed elsewhere in the Phoenix Island Group during World War 2, with villagers having said that they transported aluminium from that wreck to Nikumaroro.

In a new study, however, researchers from Penn State University have analysed the aluminium panel in unprecedented detail using neutron radiography. This non-destructive technique - which uses a collimated beam of neutrons to create an image of the object in its path - can both reveal hidden details and even the slighted hints of contaminants.

Unlike in X-ray images, in which the radiation attenuates based on the density of the object being scanned, images in neutron radiography are created because neutrons pass through some particles but not others. This creates a contrast which can be used to build up a picture of the object, revealing details that wouldn't appear in an X-ray photograph.

The study was led by Penn State engineering program manager Daniel Beck, who became interested in the panel after learning about it on the 2019 National Geographic documentary "Expedition Amelia", which covered the deep-sea explorer Professor Robert Ballard's unsuccessful attempt to locate the Electra 10-E in the waters around Nikumaroro.

(Prof. Ballard is famous for uncovering the wrecks of the RMS Titanic, the German battleship Bismarck and the USS Yorktown.)

Mr Beck felt sure that analysis using neutrons from Penn State's Breazeale Reactor would be able to determine if the panel had any hidden secrets to tell.

He said: "We thought it was a good fit - we were fairly confident we'd be able to see the remnants of marks worn away or paint particles. The first images were really exciting, but we knew we needed to do better to confirm what we thought we saw.

"We were already in the process of upgrading the neutron imaging facility, so the panel provided the perfect sample to optimise our neutron radiography capabilities."

Following the upgrade, Mr Beck and his colleagues imaged the panel once again - and made a new discovery. Nuclear engineer Professor Kenan Ünlü explained: "We found what looks like stamped or painted marks that could be from the original manufacturer.

"D24 and 335, or maybe 385. We don't know what they mean, but they are the first new information from this panel that has been examined by various experts with different scientific techniques for over 30 years."

Other writings revealed on the panel include the letters "XRO" and the characters "3" and "D". Armed with this new information, Mr Gillespie is now working with forensic analysts to attempt to determine what these six characters could mean.

If they represent some kind of production number, they might be used to identify the plate as having definitely come - or not - from Ms Earhart's plane.

Mr Gillespie said: "My mission - the mission of TIGHAR - is to use science to help solve aviation mysteries. Whether this information provides more evidence or disproves that the panel belonged to Earhart's plane, I'll be glad to know."

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/amelia-earhart-mystery-deepens-as-hidden-text-found-on-panel-thought-to-be-from-her-plane/ar-AA14KTfU?li=AAnZ9Ug&cvid=606eeecd0eaf449cab1644cd9582fb9c#image=7

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Bristol: Fossil shows lizards millions of years older than thought

A new discovery suggests lizards have existed for 35 million years longer than previously thought.

The University of Bristol took CT scans of fossilised remains of a reptile that sat in a Natural History Museum storage cupboard for decades.

They show the unknown reptile to be closely related to modern-day lizards.

Dr David Whiteside, who led the research, said the fossil was "likely to become one of the most important found in the last few decades".

It was thought lizards originated from the later Middle Jurassic period but the new findings show they lived in the Late Triassic period (237-201 million years ago).

Sharp teeth

The fossil impacts all estimates of the origin of lizards and snakes, together called the Squamata, and affects assumptions about their rates of evolution.

It was found in storage in a collection from the 1950s, including specimens from a quarry near Tortworth in South Gloucestershire.

The team has named its discovery Cryptovaranoides microlanius, meaning 'small butcher', in reference to its jaws, which are filled with sharp-edged slicing teeth.

Dr Whiteside, from Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, first spotted the specimen in a cupboard full of Clevosaurus fossils.

He explained: "This was a common enough fossil reptile, a close relative of the New Zealand tuatara that is the only survivor of the group the Rhynchocephalia, that split from the squamates over 240 million years ago."

"As we continued to investigate the specimen, we became more and more convinced that it was actually more closely related to modern day lizards than the Tuatara group."

The university team made X-rays of the fossil, allowing them to reconstruct it in three dimensions and see the tiny bones hidden inside the rock.

They said Cryptovaranoides was clearly a squamate because it differed from the Rhynchocephalia in several key areas, including the braincase, in the neck vertebrae and in the shoulder area.

Dr Whiteside concluded: "This is a very special fossil and likely to become one of the most important found in the last few decades."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-63832928

 

 

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5 stunning archaeological discoveries that may finally be unearthed in 2023

Here are five predictions about what archaeologists may dig up in 2023.

Predicting the future is tricky, but based on our research, we've made some educated guesses as to the archaeological discoveries and stories we may see in 2023. There's a possibility that the mummy of Nefertiti will be discovered, as archaeologists are conducting DNA tests in an Egyptian tomb to see if one of the mummies is the remains of the ancient Egyptian queen. We also may learn more about an underground city that flourished in Turkey about 2,000 years ago. Here are our five archaeological predictions for 2023.

FULL REPORT

 

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Viking-era populations weren’t so Viking after all

Just as Scandinavian raiders attacked Europe, their victims snuck in.

Genetic analyses of several Swedish archaeological sites have found unexpected gene flow in Scandinavia at the time of Viking raids against Medieval Britain and Europe.

The study published in Cell found while Vikings were launching their famous attacks on neighbouring regions, their victims were themselves migrating northward into Scandinavia.

Researchers pieced together two millennia of human migration into the region using gene samples from human remains at the site of the fifth century Sandby borg massacre, early medieval cemeteries and burial chambers, and bodies in the 1676 shipwreck of the warship Kronan.

Their results show an influx of British-Irish and Baltic ancestries into the Scandinavian gene pool up to the peak of the late Viking period.

But they were surprised to find these genes were substantially ‘diluted’ in samples extracted from the Kronan ruins, as well as in present-day Scandinavians.

This might indicate migrants failed to procreate successfully, while some migrant groups – like slaves or missionaries – may have been precluded from reproductive opportunities.

“Although still evident in modern Scandinavians, levels of non-local ancestry in some regions are lower than those observed in ancient individuals from the Viking to Medieval periods,” says the study’s lead author Ricardo Rodríguez-Varela.

“This suggests that ancient individuals with non-Scandinavian ancestry contributed proportionately less to the current gene pool in Scandinavia than expected based on the patterns observed in the archaeological record.”

As well as excavations suggesting a diverse range of people having migrated to the region, the analyses also suggest a higher proportion of females moving to Scandinavia among western and Baltic migrants.

Building further understanding of why the medieval period resulted in these ancestries disappearing from the gene pool by the 17th century is next on the list for the research team.

But that might be a challenge, given the scarcity of suitable individuals from that period, as well as ones in the preceding thousand years.

“Individuals from 1000 BCE to 0 are very scarce,” explains Rodríguez-Varela.

“Retrieving DNA from Scandinavian individuals with these chronologies will be important to understand the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age in this part of the world.

“More individuals from the Medieval period until the present will help us to understand when and why we observe a reduction in the levels of non-local ancestry in some current regions of Scandinavia.

”https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/viking-genetics-kronan-warship-sandby-borg/

 

 

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Dozens of animal skulls found in Neanderthal cave, suggesting they had symbolic use

The discovery has left scientists scratching their heads.

Neanderthals placed a large number of animal skulls in a Spanish cave 40,000 years ago. But why?

The discovery has scientists puzzled.

Cueva Des-Cubierta is a multi-level cave system in the Madrid region of Spain, first discovered in 1978. Archaeologists have studied the caves for decades as the location possesses indications that they were used in Neanderthal rituals.

Researchers climbed to the third level of the cave and found 35 large animal skulls. All the crania came from animals which sported either horns or antlers. Among them were 28 bovine animals including bison and aurochs, five deer and two rhinoceroses.

Nearby, Neanderthal teeth and tools indicate that the ancient humans called the cave systems home.

Plenty of Neanderthal caves have been found in the past. And many of them have animal bones within them. But this discovery is different.

The scientists argue in a paper published in Nature Human Behavior, that the presence of the skulls indicates something other than Neanderthal feasts.

Finding a collection of large animal skulls in a cave is highly irregular. Today’s hunter gather communities will rarely take the heads of prey back to their dwellings. The skulls are heavy, cumbersome and provide little by way of meat. That very few animal teeth and other bones are present in the cave also indicates the creatures were butchered elsewhere and only their decapitated heads brought inside.

Therefore, the authors conclude, “the introduction of the crania, and not of other parts of the carcasses of greater nutritional interest, into the Cueva Des-Cubierta seems to have been deliberate and not related to subsistence.”

“Rather, it seems more related to their symbolic use,” they add.

It’s not clear exactly what the skulls meant to the ancient humans or how they were used. Neanderthals aren’t known to have performed rituals with animal heads – this is something that has only been seen in the archaeological record in relation to early modern humans.

By analysing the bones, the team was able to determine that the animal heads were carefully removed from the bodies and had been “worked” in different ways involving tools and, in some cases, fire.

The fact that the skulls still had their horns and antlers lead the researchers to suggest that they may have been hunting trophies.

Whatever the purpose of the skulls, the Neanderthals appear to have been stockpiling the skulls for quite some time. The animal crania occupy an entire sediment layer, representing “years, decades, centuries or even millennia” according to the researchers.

Neanderthal caves in the past have typically been related exclusively to fairly mundane activities like hunting or tool-making.

“[T]o date, no site exclusively related to symbolic activity has been identified in the Neanderthal archaeological record,” the authors write.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/neanderthal-skull-cave/

 

Edited January 30, 2023 by CaaC (John)

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2.9-million-year-old butchery site is the oldest evidence of human ancestors consuming very large animals

The site calls into question who was the first to use stone tools.

Early human ancestors were using some of the oldest stone tools in the palaeontological record 2.9 million years ago to butcher hippos and pound plant material.

The findings come from a site on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya.

The horn of Africa is known as the “cradle of humanity” because it is so rich in early hominin fossils and artefacts, suggesting it as the birthplace of the primate lineage from which humans evolved.

Among the finds from this part of Africa are the oldest stone tools ever, dating back 3.3 million years, discovered in 2015 near Lake Turkana, also in Kenya.

Lake Turkana is also home of the 1.6-million-year-old fossil of a Homo ergaster dubbed “Turkana Boy,” the most complete early hominin skeleton ever found.  Turkana Boy is a scientific marvel, representing one of the earliest hominins with features beginning to resemble those of modern humans.

Though not the oldest stone tools ever discovered, the recent Lake Victoria finds are the oldest of a particular kind of stone tool belonging to what is called the “Oldowan toolkit.”

Oldowan tools are extremely significant in the development of early hominin production. They include simple flaked tools like choppers, scrapers and rudimentary cutting instruments.

The handaxes that were to replace Oldowan tools emerged hundreds of thousands of years later, around 1.7 million years ago.

There are three types of Oldowan tools: hammerstones, cores and flakes.

Hammerstones are used for hitting. Cores are typically angular or oval in shape. When a core is struck with a hammerstone, it creates flakes that can be used as a cutting or scraping edge. 

“With these tools you can crush better than an elephant’s molar can and cut better than a lion’s canine,” says palaeoanthropologist Dr Rick Potts, head of the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program. “Oldowan technology was like suddenly evolving a brand-new set of teeth outside your body, and it opened up a new variety of foods on the African savannah to our ancestors.” 

To date the tools, scientists used radioactive decay measurements of the sediment; reversal of Earth’s magnetic field; and other fossil finds in the same layer.

These multiple dating techniques place the tools from Lake Victoria at around 2.9 million years old, but more conservative estimates give a range of their construction between 2.58 million and 3 million years ago.

The site holds the fossil remains of at least three hippopotamus individuals – two of which bear the tell-tale signs that they were butchered. Similarly, antelope remains at the site show indications that the flesh was sliced off the bone, and that bones were crushed to get at the marrow inside.

“What’s really interesting is that here at this site you have some of the earliest evidence of butchery of megafauna, even before the advent of the use of fire,” says Associate Professor Julien Louys from Australia’s Griffith University. “This indicates that exploitation of megafauna began millions of years before the so-called megafauna extinction event.”

Fire hadn’t been invented for another two million years, so the meat may have been cut up to make it easier to chew.

Wear patterns on 30 of the stone tools discovered show they were also used to pound plants.

But which early hominins made the tools?

The site, and nearby sites, have produced molars belonging to close revolutionary relatives of humans, Paranthropus.

“The assumption among researchers has long been that only the genus Homo, to which humans belong, was capable of making stone tools,” Potts said. “But finding Paranthropus alongside these stone tools opens up a fascinating whodunnit.”

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/stone-tools-butcher-site-kenya/

 

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New hair testing uncovers drug use in Bronze Age cultures

Toxic plants used as part of burial ceremonies induced delirium, hallucinations.

Hairs found in an ancient cave in Spain have shed light on the use of drug plants in ancient Europe....

 

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Oldest skeletons add to understanding of evolution in time for International Bat Appreciation Day

The 52-million-year-old bat fossils were found in Wyoming, USA.

 

A new species of bat has been described based on the oldest bat skeletons ever discovered – 52-million-year-old fossils found in the Green River Formation of Wyoming in the US........

 

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Peru archaeology: Ancient mummy found under rubbish dump Published

Archaeologists in Peru conducting a dig at the site of a rubbish dump in the capital Lima have found a mummy they think is around 3,000 years old.

Students from San Marcos University, who are helping with the dig, first spotted the mummy's hair and skull....

 

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Peruvian fossil challenges blue whales for size

Scientists have identified a new candidate for the heaviest ever animal on Planet Earth.

It's an ancient, long-extinct whale that would have tipped the scales at close to 200 tonnes......

 

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Half-million-year-old wooden structure unearthed in Zambia Published 7 hours ago

The discovery of ancient wooden logs in the banks of a river in Zambia has changed archaeologists' understanding of ancient human life........... 

 

 

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First map of Earth's lost continent has been published

You might think you know all the continents, but what about Zealandia?

In 2017, a previously unknown contingent of the shores of New Zealand was discovered - making headlines globally...........

 

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Big bird tracks in NZ river among oldest moa material in existence

About 3.57 million years ago, a stately moa picked its way across the probably slippery, silty-clay surface of an ancient river plain in New Zealand, leaving a trackway of 7 steps.

The extinct bird’s footprints – measuring roughly a ruler’s length (260-294mm) and width (272-300mm), sinking 46mm deep in the clay – are the first ever discovered on the South Island, and the second oldest fossil record of moa in the country....

 

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Pliosaur discovery: Huge sea monster emerges from Dorset cliffs

The skull of a colossal sea monster has been extracted from the cliffs of Dorset's Jurassic Coast.

It belongs to a pliosaur, a ferocious marine reptile that terrorised the oceans about 150 million years ago.

The 2m-long fossil is one of the most complete specimens of its type ever discovered and is giving new insights into this ancient predator.

The skull will be featured in a special David Attenborough programme on BBC One on New Year's Day......

 

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Mysterious medieval cemetery unearthed in Wales

A rare, early medieval cemetery has been unearthed in Wales and it has left archaeologists scratching their heads.

It's thought to date to the 6th or 7th Century and 18 of the estimated 70 graves have been excavated so far.

Some of the well preserved skeletons have been found lying in unusual positions and unexpected artefacts are also emerging from the site......

 

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Garden cities, 2500 years old, concealed in the upper Amazon

The Upano river, in Ecuador. Credit: JarnoVerdonk / Getty Images

Archaeologists have used a combination of fieldwork and LIDAR technology to uncover evidence of a 2,500-year-old settlement in the upper Amazon.

The dense network of urban centres, the largest known in Amazonia, sits in the Upano Valley of Ecuador, in the eastern foothills of the Andes.

It was occupied from about 500 BCE to 300-600 CE, according to evidence from the sites.

 

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Pterosaur: Unique flying reptile soared above Isle of Skye

 A unique species of flying reptile, or pterosaur, that lived 168-166 million years ago has been discovered on the Isle of Skye.

Its wings, shoulders, legs and backbone were found in a rock on a beach, but the fossil's skull was missing.

Scientists were surprised to find a pterosaur from this period - they were thought to mostly live in China.

 

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Dinosaur Island: 40 years of discoveries on Skye

Forty years ago a scientific paper written by a young student revealed for the first time the presence of dinosaur fossils on the Isle of Skye.

Since then, a whole host of discoveries have been made including a "dinosaur disco" made up of dozens of footprints, a bone from an ancestor of the T-rex and the fossils of winged reptiles called pterosaurs.

 

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Dolphin which imprisoned fish 22 million years ago found in New Zealand

 A newly discovered prehistoric dolphin appears to have had a unique method for catching its prey.

Aureia rerehua was found in the Hakataramea Valley in the South Canterbury region of New Zealand’s south island. It was uncovered in a limestone quarry in a layer of sediment that dates to 22–23 million years ago (mya).

It is described in a paper published in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

 

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Fossil reveals 240 million year-old 'dragon'

Scientists have revealed a new, remarkably complete fossil - a 16ft (5m)-long aquatic reptile from the Triassic period.

The creature dates back 240 million years and has been dubbed a "dragon" because of its extremely long neck.

It is called Dinocephalosaurus orientalis, a species that was originally identified back in 2003.