fossils
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Footprints Suggest Humans Migrated Deep Into North America Earlier Than Previously Known
Evidence published this week not only changes the timing of human existence in southwestern North America but suggests that people remained in that location for at least 2,000 years. It’s a stunning revelation that indicates humans lived in areas below the ice sheets covering much of North America and the world at that time, evidence…
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Giant ‘Toothed’ Birds Flew Over Antarctica 40 Million to 50 Million Years Ago
Picture Antarctica today and what comes to mind? Large ice floes bobbing in the Southern Ocean? Maybe a remote outpost populated with scientists from around the world? Or perhaps colonies of penguins puttering amid vast open tracts of snow? Fossils from Seymour Island, just off the Antarctic Peninsula, are painting a very different picture of…
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The Fascinating Story Behind the Longest Known Prehistoric Journey
Every parent knows the feeling. Your child is crying and wants to go home, you pick them up to comfort them and move faster, your arms tired with a long walk ahead – but you cannot stop now. Now add to this a slick mud surface and a range of hungry predators around you. That…
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What Fossils and DNA Tell Us About the Evolution of Modern Intelligence
When did something like us first appear on the planet? It turns out there’s remarkably little agreement on this question. Fossils and DNA suggest people looking like us, anatomically modern Homo sapiens, evolved around 300,000 years ago. Surprisingly, archaeology – tools, artefacts, cave art – suggest that complex technology and cultures, “behavioural modernity”, evolved more…