Mastodons were hunted in North America 800 years earlier than thought

From the Guardian

"Humans were hunting large mammals in North America about 800 years earlier than previously thought, new analysis of a controversial mastodon specimen – with what appears to be a spear tip in its rib – seems to confirm."

Ancient 'paint factory' unearthed

From the BBC

"The kits used by humans 100,000 years ago to make paint have been found at the famous archaeological site of Blombos Cave in South Africa.

The hoard includes red and yellow pigments, shell containers, and the grinding cobbles and bone spatulas to work up a paste - everything an ancient artist might need in their workshop."

Mysterious Maine earthquakes caused by Ice Age rebound

From Wired

"On the last day of April and first five days of May, dozens of tiny earthquakes caused Maine’s eastern coast to tremble. What could have shaken this geologically quiet region, located in the middle of a tectonic plate, far from any active faults?"

Giant ants spread in warm climes

From the BBC

"A giant ant growing over 5cm (2in) long crossed the Arctic during hot periods in the Earth's history, scientists say, using land bridges between continents.

The ant, named Titanomyrma lubei, lived about 50 million years ago and is one of the largest ant species ever found."

The concept of land bridges across the Arctic during very warm periods is very interesting.

First homosexual caveman found

From the Telegraph

"The male body – said to date back to between 2900-2500BC – was discovered buried in a way normally reserved only for women of the Corded Ware culture in the Copper Age.

The skeleton was found in a Prague suburb in the Czech Republic with its head pointing eastwards and surrounded by domestic jugs, rituals only previously seen in female graves."

Stone tools 'demand new American story'

From the BBC

"The long-held theory of how humans first populated the Americas may have been well and truly broken.

Archaeologists have unearthed thousands of stone tools that predate the technology widely assumed to have been carried by the first settlers."

Genetic study uncovers new path to Polynesia

From Science Daily

"Surprising new evidence which overturns current theories of how humans colonised the Pacific has been discovered by scientists at the University of Leeds, UK."

Neanderthal faces were not adapted to cold

From Physorg

"Neanderthal faces had prominent cheekbones and wide noses previously thought to have developed in extremely cold periods because large sinuses were needed to warm air as it was inhaled. One problem with this theory is that modern people such as the Inuits, and other mammals living in Arctic regions have not developed large sinuses, and their sinuses are often smaller, and another problem is that it has never been proven that Neanderthal sinuses were larger."

Neanderthals and early modern humans had same lifespan

From Past Horizons

"A new study by a Washington University in St. Louis suggests life expectancy was probably the same for early modern and late archaic humans and did not factor in the extinction of Neanderthals."

Study Of Lice DNA Shows Humans First Wore Clothes 170,000 Years Ago

From Medical News Today

"A new University of Florida study following the evolution of lice shows modern humans started wearing clothes about 170,000 years ago, a technology which enabled them to successfully migrate out of Africa. "

Cretan tools point to 130,000-year-old sea travel

From the Guardian/AP

"Archaeologists on the island of Crete have discovered what may be evidence of one of the world's first sea voyages by human ancestors, the Greek Culture Ministry said Monday

A ministry statement said experts from Greece and the U.S. have found rough axes and other tools thought to be between 130,000 and 700,000 years old close to shelters on the island's south coast."

Ancient humans, dubbed 'Denisovans', interbred with us

From the BBC (includes video)

"Scientists say an entirely separate type of human identified from bones in Siberia co-existed and interbred with our own species.

The ancient humans have been dubbed "Denisovans" after the caves in Siberia where their remains were found."

Lost Civilization may have existed beneath the Persian Gulf

From Live Science

"Veiled beneath the Persian Gulf, a once-fertile landmass may have supported some of the earliest humans outside Africa some 75,000 to 100,000 years ago, a new review of research suggests.

At its peak, the floodplain now below the Gulf would have been about the size of Great Britain, and then shrank as water began to flood the area. Then, about 8,000 years ago, the land would have been swallowed up by the Indian Ocean, the review scientist said."

Neanderthals: how needles and skins gave us the edge on our kissing cousins

From the Guardian

"On the ground floor of the Natural History Museum in London, arrays of Formica-covered cabinets stretch from floor to ceiling and from one end of the great building to the other. Some of nature's finest glories are stored here: pygmy hippo bones from Sicily, mammoth tusks from Siberia and skulls of giant sloths from South America.

Many treasures compete for attention, but there is one sample, kept in a small plywood box, that deserves especial interest: the Swanscombe skull. Found near Gravesend last century, it is made up of three pieces of the brain case of a 400,000-year-old female and is one of only half-a-dozen bits of skeleton that can be traced to men and women who lived in Britain before the end of the last ice age. Human remains do not get more precious than this."

Earliest known paintings under study in France

From Euronews (includes video)

"The Chauvet cave in southern France is home to some of the earliest known man-made paintings, dating back some 32,000 years.

A team of scientists is studying the works in order to find out more about their history. Their work will help build a reconstruction site for visitors in years to come."

Digger finds Neolithic tomb complex

From the BBC

"Archaeologists on Orkney are investigating what is thought to be a 5,000-year-old tomb complex.

A local man stumbled on the site while using a mechanical digger for landscaping."

Asian Neanderthals, Humans Mated

From Discovery

"Early modern humans mated with Neanderthals and possibly other archaic hominid species from Asia at least 100,000 years ago, according to a new study that describes human remains from that period in South China.

The remains are the oldest modern human fossils in East Asia and predate, by over 60,000 years, the oldest previously known modern human remains in the region."

And in related news from the Toronto Star

"There’s a touch of Neanderthal in Ozzy Osbourne. That’s now a scientific fact.
Osbourne, the hard-living rocker who used to down four bottles of Cognac a day, is among the first people in the world to get his entire genome sequenced."

Out of Asia? Ancient ancestor of modern man walked Sahara 39million years ago

From the Daily Mail

"The human family tree may have to be rewritten after scientists found evidence that the ancient ancestors of humans, apes and monkeys evolved in Asia - rather than Africa - tens of millions of years ago.

The astonishing claim follows the discovery of four species of early primate in the Sahara desert, dating back 39 million years."

Bone discovery pushes date for first use of stone tools back 1m years

From the Guardian

"The ancestors of early humans used stone tools to butcher animal carcasses nearly 1m years earlier than previously thought.


Archaeologists revised the date after spotting distinctive cut and crush marks made by stone tools on animal bones dating to 3.4m years ago..."

Five millennia on, Iceman of Bolzano gives up DNA secrets

From the Indy

"Nearly 20 years after the dead man's head was found peeping from a melting Alpine glacier, investigators have finally seen fit to contact his relatives.

This doesn't indicate sloth on the part of the Italian authorities, but instead, advances in DNA technology that may lead scientists to living descendants of the South Tyrol's 5,300-year-old mummified man..."