Fossils & Ruins News

August 20, 2016

Were Ancient Stone Artifacts Used as Projectiles?

Paleontologists Discover Major T. Rex Fossil

When Was the Atlantic Separated from Pacific?

Reinterpreting the Fossil Record on Jaws

Latest Headlines

updated 11:30am EDT

High-Tech Imaging Reveals Precolonial Mexican Manuscript Hidden from View for 500 Years

Aug. 18, 2016 — Researchers have used high-tech imaging to uncover the details of a rare Mexican codex dating from before the colonization of the Americas. The newly ... read more

Pre-Hispanic Mexican Civilization May Have Bred and Managed Rabbits and Hares

Aug. 17, 2016 — Humans living in the pre-Hispanic Mexican city of Teotihuacan may have bred rabbits and hares for food, fur and bone tools, ... read more

New Techniques Boost Understanding of How Fish Fins Became Fingers

Aug. 17, 2016 — The cells that make fin rays in fish play a central role in forming the fingers and toes of four-legged creatures, one of the great transformations required for the ... read more

Tree-Rings Reveal Secret Clocks That Could Reset Key Dates Across the Ancient World

Aug. 17, 2016 — In a new paper, the authors explain how harvesting data from tree-rings could revolutionize the study of ancient ... read more

An Ancient Mayan Copernicus

Aug. 16, 2016 — Ancient hieroglyphic texts reveal Mayans made major discovery in math and astronomy, a researcher suggests. This study blends the study of Mayan hieroglyphics (epigraphy), ... read more

Sea Ice Strongly Linked to Climate Change in Past 90,000 Years

Aug. 16, 2016 — Expansion and retreat of sea ice varied consistently in pace with rapid climate changes through past 90,000 years, a new ... read more

New Species of Extinct River Dolphin Discovered in Smithsonian Collection

Aug. 16, 2016 — A fossil that has been in the collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History since it was discovered in 1951 is today helping scientists piece together ... read more

Elbows of Extinct Marsupial Lion Suggest Unique Hunting Style

Aug. 16, 2016 — Scientists have proposed that the long extinct marsupial lion hunted in a very unique way - by using its teeth to hold prey before dispatching them with its huge ... read more

New Antarctic Ice Discovery Aids Future Climate Predictions

Aug. 16, 2016 — A team of scientists has discovered a 65 percent reduction in sea ice during the last interglacial period around 128,000 years ... read more

Humble Moss Helped Create Our Oxygen-Rich Atmosphere

Aug. 15, 2016 — The evolution of the first land plants including mosses may explain a long-standing mystery of how Earth's atmosphere became enriched with oxygen, according to an ... read more

Science Unmasks the Woman Degas Painted Over

Mysterious Amulet Messages Discovered in Serbia

X-Ray Reveals Lost Edgar Degas Portrait

A Legend Of A Flood Spurring Chinese Civilization May Be A Little True

Scientists Take Big Step Toward Recreating Primordial 'RNA World' of 4 Billion Years Ago

Aug. 15, 2016 — Scientists have succeeded in creating a ribozyme that can basically serve both to amplify genetic information and generate functional molecules, a big step toward the laboratory re-creation of the ... read more

Twenty-Five Little Bones Tell a Puzzling Story About Early Primate Evolution

Aug. 15, 2016 — A cache of exquisitely preserved bones, found in a coal mine in the state of Gujarat, India, appear to be the most primitive primate bones yet discovered, according to a new analysis. Their ... read more

Schizophrenia Emerged After Humans Diverged from Neanderthals

Aug. 15, 2016 — Schizophrenia poses an evolutionary enigma. The disorder has existed throughout recorded human history and persists despite its severe effects on thought and behavior, and its reduced rates of ... read more

Large Human Brain Evolved as a Result of 'Sizing Each Other Up'

Aug. 12, 2016 — Humans have evolved a disproportionately large brain as a result of sizing each other up in large cooperative social groups, researchers have ... read more

Britain's Last Hunter-Gatherers Discovered Using Breakthrough Analysis of Bone Fragments

Aug. 11, 2016 — Archaeologists have identified rare human bones from the UK dating to the Late Mesolithic era (around 4000 BC, just prior to the arrival of farming in Britain) using an innovative new bone collagen ... read more

Unearthed: The Cannibal Sharks of a Forgotten Age

Aug. 11, 2016 — Scientists have discovered incredible fossil evidence that a 300-million-year-old shark, which mildly resembled a modern-day bull shark, cannibalized its ... read more

Isotopic Analysis of Teeth May Identify Starvation in Victims of the Great Irish Famine

Aug. 10, 2016 — Isotopic analysis of teeth may identify signs of starvation in human tissues from 19th century Irish workhouse residents, according to a new ... read more

Textbook Story of How Humans Populated America Is 'Biologically Unviable,' Study Finds

Aug. 10, 2016 — Using ancient DNA, researchers have created a unique picture of how a prehistoric migration route evolved over thousands of years -- revealing that it could not have been used by the first people to ... read more

Rare Frescoes from the Roman Period Discovered at Zippori in the Galilee

Aug. 10, 2016 — A team has discovered hundreds of fragments belonging to frescoes from the Roman period, in the Zippori National Park. The fragments, which contain figurative images, floral patterns and geometric ... read more

The Hunt for War Treasure in the Philippines Has Hidden Meanings

Aug. 10, 2016 — Many believe that enormous quantities of gold lie buried somewhere in the Philippines. According to a popular account, Japanese soldiers used the Philippines as a base to hide treasures they had ... read more

Human Selection Pressure on Novel Peptide Aided Domestication of Asian Rice

Aug. 10, 2016 — An international research team identified a novel signal peptide that matures in rice flowers to promote bristle (awn) elongation. The gene encoding this peptide contains a GC-rich region that ... read more

Stone Age Hunters Really Did Hunt Well by Throwing Stones

Aug. 10, 2016 — Stone objects collected by prehistoric hunters were effective as throwing weapons to hunt animals, research ... read more

Tracing the Evolution of Bird Reproduction

Aug. 10, 2016 — What really came first -- the chicken or the egg? Birds' reproductive biology is dramatically different from that of any other living vertebrates, and scientists have long wondered how and when ... read more

New Piltdown Hoax Analysis Points to Work of 'Lone Forger'

Aug. 10, 2016 — Latest analysis of the famous Piltdown Man forgeries points the finger of suspicion even more firmly at their discoverer, Charles ... read more

Heredity Explains African-American Paradox, Researcher Says

Aug. 9, 2016 — An evolutionary historian has determined that the region of origin of ancestors contributes to descendants' risk of developing certain medical ... read more

Deer Evolution: Ancient DNA Reveals Novel Relationships

Aug. 9, 2016 — Researchers have sequenced mitochondrial DNA from museum specimens of rare species of deer. Analysis of partial nucleotide sequences has enabled the team to refine our picture of the evolutionary ... read more

Sensational Grave Find in Cypriote Bronze Age City

Aug. 9, 2016 — An archaeological expedition has discovered one of the richest graves from the Late Bronze Age ever found on the island of Cyprus. The grave and its offering pit, located adjacent the Bronze Age city ... read more

First Bell Beaker Earthwork Enclosure Found in Spain

Aug. 9, 2016 — Archaeologists have discovered an earthwork enclosure in southern Spain dating from the Bell Beaker period of 2,600 to 2,200 BCE. The complex of concentric rings may have been used for holding ... read more

New Insights on Great Lakes Pre-European Monuments

Aug. 9, 2016 — Merging an innovative modeling technique with old-fashioned sleuthing, researchers have shed new light on the mystery of pre-European archaeological monument sites in Michigan, even though 80 percent ... read more

Archaeology Team Makes World-First Tool Discovery

Aug. 8, 2016 — How smart were human-like species of the Stone Age? New research reveals surprisingly sophisticated adaptations by early humans living 250,000 years ago in a former oasis near Azraq, ... read more

Monday, August 15, 2016

Friday, August 12, 2016