Face of 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman revealed
9 hours ago
What would it be like to meet one of our closest human relatives from 75,000 years ago in the flesh?
Scientists have produced a remarkable reconstruction of what a Neanderthal woman would have looked like when she was alive.
It is based on the flattened, shattered remains of a skull whose bones were so soft when excavated they had the consistency of "a well-dunked biscuit".
Researchers first had to strengthen the fragments before reassembling them.
Prehistoric DNA being dug up to see if it can help modern-day crops cope with climate change
Monday 6 May 2024 08:31, UK
Prehistoric plant DNA is being dug up from deep below the Arctic to see if it can help modern-day crops cope with the effects of climate change.
Researchers from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh are working with European scientists to analyse microbes from the palaeolithic period, when, like today, the planet was becoming warmer.
The university team has been awarded £500,000 by Horizon Europe, a European Union scientific research initiative, to spend four years examining ancient soil samples extracted from deep below the Arctic under a project named Tolerate.
Dr Ross Alexander, a plant molecular biologist at Heriot-Watt, said researchers were "using samples from the palaeolithic period, around 100-200,000 years ago, because the planet was warming then, much like now".
The aim, he said, was "to find out whether the plants, soil and bacteria of the past can help our current crops survive in a rapidly changing planet".
Ancient People Hunted Extinct Elephants at Tagua Tagua Lake in Chile 12,000 Years Ago May 22, 2024
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) Thousands of years ago, early hunter-gatherers returned regularly to Tagua Tagua Lake in Chile to hunt ancient elephants and take advantage of other local resources, according to a study published May 22, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Rafael Labarca of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and colleagues.
Multiple archaeological sites are known from the region of Tagua Tagua Lake in central Chile, representing some of the earliest known human settlements in the Americas. In this study, Labarca and colleagues report the recent discovery of a new site called Taguatagua 3, an ancient hunter-gatherer camp dating to the Late Pleistocene, between 12,440-12,550 years old.
Notably, this site features the fossil remains of a gomphothere, an extinct relative of elephants. Signs of butchery on the bones, along with stone tools and other evidence, indicate that Taguatagua 3 represents a temporary camp established around the task of processing the large carcass. Other activities were also carried out during the camp’s brief period of use, including processing of other foods as indicated by additional charred remains of plants and small animals such as frogs and birds. Fossil cactus seeds and bird eggshell suggest that this camp was occupied specifically during the dry season.
Numerous such sites of similar age are now known from this region, implying that Tagua Tagua Lake was a recurring hunting and scavenging ground for people during the Late Pleistocene due to abundant and predictable local resources. The authors suggest that this area was a key location along the routes taken by mobile communities of the time and that temporary camps might have hosted regular meetings between these mobile bands. Further investigation of this rich archaeological region will continue to provide insights into the mobility and subsistence strategies of early humans in South America.
The authors add: “Taguatagua 3 helps us to understand better how the early humans adapted to fast changing environments in central Chile during the late Pleistocene times.”
Discovery in Timor May Rewrite How Humanity Arrived in Australia by Mike Morley et. al.
May 23, 2024
Introduction:
(Science Alert) Humans arrived in Australia at least 65,000 years ago, according to archaeological evidence. These pioneers were part of an early wave of people travelling eastwards from Africa, through Eurasia, and ultimately into Australia and New Guinea.
But this was only one of many waves of migration in the story of the human colonization of the globe. These waves were probably driven by climate change and the ability of groups to adapt to a wide range of environments.
In new research published in Nature Communications, we have found evidence that a large wave of migration reached the island of Timor not long after 50,000 years ago.
Our work at Laili rock shelter suggests the people who first reached Australia some 65,000 years ago came via New Guinea, while Timor and other southern islands were only colonized by a later wave of settlers.
A team of evolutionary biologists at Harvard University, working with colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, East Carolina University, Osaka University and the University of Toronto, has reconstructed the genome of an extinct species of flightless bird that has come to be known as the little bush moa.
In their study, published in the journal Science Advances, the group sequenced DNA recovered from a fossilized bone found on South Island (the largest and southernmost of the two main islands that make up New Zealand).
A new study from Tel Aviv University identified the earliest appearance worldwide of special stone tools, used 400,000 years ago to process fallow deer. The tools, called Quina scrapers (after the site in France where they were first discovered), were unearthed at the prehistoric sites of Jaljulia and Qesem Cave. They are characterized by a sharp working edge shaped as scales, enabling users to butcher their prey and also process its hides.
The researchers explain that after the elephants disappeared from the region, the ancient hunters were forced to make technological adaptations enabling them to hunt, butcher, and process much smaller and quicker game—fallow deer. The study also found that the unique tools were made of non-local flint procured from the Mountains of Samaria, which probably also served as the fallow deers' calving area, about 20km east of Jaljulia and Qesem Cave.
Consequently, the researchers hypothesize that Mounts Ebal and Gerizim (near Nablus of today) were considered a source of plenty and held sacred by prehistoric hunters as early as the Paleolithic period. The study was led by Vlad Litov and Prof. Ran Barkai of Tel Aviv University's Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures. The paper was published in Archaeologies.
Understanding the Green Sahara’s Collapse June 17 , 2024
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) From the last ice age until around 6000 years ago, the region now known as the Sahara Desert was a lush, green landscape teeming with life. This “African Humid Period” ended abruptly, transforming this thriving region into the arid terrain seen today. Scientists have long puzzled over how the slow changes in solar radiation due to variations in Earth’s orbit could lead to such an abrupt large-scale climate transition. This mystery highlights the broader challenge of understanding and predicting abrupt shifts in natural systems—commonly linked to tipping points.
New study by Andreas Morr and Prof. Niklas Boers, researchers at TUM and PIK, introduces an advanced early detection method that provides more accurate and reliable early warnings, particularly under more realistic external conditions. Traditional methods assume that random disturbances in a system are uncorrelated in time. However, this is not realistic for climate systems, because it assumes each day's weather would be independent of the previous day. In reality, tomorrow's weather heavily depends on today's. This mismatch reduces the reliability of conventional methods for early warning signals. The new method by Morr and Boers addresses this limitation by developing estimators of system stability designed specifically for more realistic climate conditions.
When applying their methods to the desertification of the West Sahara, they found a clear early warning before the loss of vegetation, consistent with the crossing of a tipping point. “Our findings suggest that the abrupt end of the African Humid Period was likely caused by a weakening of the system's stability as the orbital configuration of the Earth changed, gradually pushing the system toward a tipping point”, says Andreas Morr. Niklas Boers adds: “The advanced detection method that we developed enhances our ability to monitor and respond to potential tipping points in various natural systems. Our results suggest that large-scale climate tipping events such as this can in principle be anticipated, hopefully enabling timely interventions.”
By improving the accuracy of early warning signals, the research supports better preparedness and response strategies, ultimately helping to protect ecosystems and human societies from severe impacts of potential climate tipping points that might be crossed due to anthropogenic climate change
A new study published by an international multidisciplinary team of researchers including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York, documents the first case of Down syndrome in Neanderthals and reveals that they were capable of providing altruistic care and support for a vulnerable member of their social group.
The research, led by anthropologists at the University of Alcalá and the University of Valencia in Spain, studied the skeletal remains of a Neanderthal child, whom they affectionately named "Tina", found at Cova Negra, a cave in Valencia, Spain long known for yielding important Neanderthal discoveries.
The paper is published in the journal Science Advances.
"The excavations at Cova Negra have been key to understanding the way of life of the Neanderthals along the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula and have allowed us to define the occupations of the settlement: of short temporal duration and with a small number of individuals, alternating with the presence of carnivores," said University of Valencia Professor of Prehistory Valentín Villaverde.
New geological dating techniques place first European hominids in Iberian Peninsula 1.3 million years ago
by University of Barcelona
One of the most important controversies about human evolution and expansion is when and by what route the first hominids arrived in Europe from the African continent. Now, geological dating techniques at the Orce sites (Baza basin, Granada) place the human remains found in this area as the oldest in Europe, at approximately 1.3 million years old. These results reinforce the hypothesis that humans arrived in Europe through the south of the Iberian Peninsula, through the Strait of Gibraltar, instead of returning to the Mediterranean via the Asian route.
The study, led by Lluís Gibert, researcher and lecturer at the University of Barcelona's Faculty of Earth Sciences, involved the participation of researchers from the Berkeley Geochronology Centre and Murray State University (United States). The work is published in the journal Earth-Science Reviews.
Reconstruction of the Environmental Conditions and Cultivation Practices When Agriculture First Emerged in Western Europe July 30, 2024
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) Around 7,000 years ago, the first farmers in the western Mediterranean selected the most fertile land available, cultivated cereal varieties very similar to today’s, and made sparing use of domestic animal faeces, as they do today. These are some of the elements that characterize the expansion of agriculture during the Neolithic period in Western Europe, according to an article in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), whose first author is Professor Josep Lluís Araus, from the Faculty of Biology at the University of Barcelona and member of Agrotechnio, the CERCA Centre for Research in Agrotechnology.
The study reconstructs the environmental conditions, crop management practices and the characteristics of the plants that existed when agriculture appeared in Western Europe, and takes as a reference the site of La Draga (Banyoles, Girona, Spain), one of the most significant and complex sites on the Iberian Peninsula, as well as including data on sixteen other sites from the beginnings of agriculture in the region. According to the conclusions, at the time of its appearance on the Iberian Peninsula, agriculture had already achieved a consolidated level in agricultural techniques for growing cereals, suggesting an evolution throughout its migration across Europe of the methods and genetic material originating from the fertile crescent, the cradle of the Neolithic revolution in the Middle East.
13,000-Year-Old Campsite in North America Shows A "Way of Life Lost to Time" by Tom Hale
September 12, 2024
Introduction:
(IFL Science) Some 13,000 years ago, wandering people set up a campsite in the Great Lakes region and returned to the plot each summer. The site is one the earliest ever discovered in this part of North America, revealing fresh insights into the population of the continent.
The humans belonged to a group known as the Clovis people. Many scholars used to believe they were the first human inhabitants to set foot in the Americas, although this theory has been largely dispelled. Nevertheless, the Clovis people remain an important character in the story of prehistoric America.
In a new study, archaeologists have detailed a collection of stone tools found at an abandoned river channel in southwest Michigan called the Belson site.
Among the discoveries were spearheads that featured Clovis points, characterized by a central channel that runs down the length of the object, called a flute. This distinctive style of technology rapidly spread across the Americas around 13,000 years ago and has become ubiquitous in the archaeological record.
Analyzing the tools, the team uncovered traces of animal proteins from musk ox, caribou or deer, hare, and peccary. This suggests they were using the sharp points to butcher meat and provides a clear insight into the dietary culture of the Clovis people.
Railroad construction through a farm on the Danish island of Falster has revealed a 5,000-year-old Neolithic site hiding an advanced technology—a stone paved root cellar.
Archaeology researchers from the Museum Lolland-Falster, along with Aarhus University, Denmark, have analyzed the site in a paper, "Stone-Paved Cellars in the Stone Age? Archaeological Evidence for a Neolithic Subterranean Construction from Nygårdsvej 3, Falster, Denmark," published online in the journal Radiocarbon.
The emergence of the Funnel Beaker Culture around 6,000 years ago brought the Scandinavian region's first switch to agriculture and domesticated animals (sheep, goats, cattle), leading to a more sedentary lifestyle. With the new way of life came the region's first construction of houses, megalithic tombs (dolmens), and landscape-altering structures, a huge shift away from the highly mobile hunter–gatherer strategy of the Late Mesolithic.
More than a million years ago, on a hot savanna teeming with wildlife near the shore of what would someday become Lake Turkana in Kenya, two completely different species of hominins may have passed each other as they scavenged for food.
Scientists know this because they have examined 1.5-million-year-old fossils they unearthed and have concluded they represent the first example of two sets of hominin footprints made about the same time on an ancient lake shore. The discovery will provide more insight into human evolution and how species cooperated and competed with one another, the scientists said.
"Hominin" is a newer term that describes a subdivision of the larger category known as hominids. Hominins include all organisms, extinct and alive, considered to be within the human lineage that emerged after the split from the ancestors of the great apes. This is believed to have occurred about 6 million to 7 million years ago.
The discovery, published in Science , offers hard proof that different hominin species lived contemporaneously in time and space, overlapping as they evaded predators and weathered the challenges of safely securing food in the ancient African landscape.
Hominins belonging to the species Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei, the two most common living human species of the Pleistocene Epoch, made the tracks, the researchers said.
A Major Leap Forward in Technology Took Place 900,000 Years Ago by Tessa Koumoundouros
December 11, 2024
Introduction:
(Science Alert) Around 900,000 years ago stone tech 2.0 was released into Spain. University of Santiago de Compostela anthropologist Diego Lombao and colleagues found the earliest known European example of advanced stone tool techniques.
Discovered at El Barranc de la Boella in northeastern Spain, the technological leap predates the evolutionary split between modern humans and Neanderthals, so these advances in stone tools were likely created and used by our shared ancestors and/or other now extinct human species.
"The technological behavior observed at El Barranc de la Boella demonstrates significant technological advancements and anticipatory behavior," write Lombao and team in their paper.
Analysis revealed that the way the tools were knapped followed a shared sequence, implying the tool crafters were using a common template to achieve consistent results. These ancient humans were also producing larger tools than those seen previously, and tailoring these tools for specific purposes.
Together these traits indicate "a sophisticated level of foresight and planning."
DNA Reveals When Humans and Neanderthals Became One by Tessa Koumoundouros
December 13, 2024
Introduction:
(Science Alert) When modern humans first ventured out of Africa, they followed in the footsteps of another human species who dared leave before them.
Eventually our bold ancestors caught up with their Neanderthal cousins and did a bit more than just make friends.
A new genetic analysis of the earliest known modern human remains found in Ranis in Germany and Zlatý kůň in the Czech Republic suggests emigrant Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis mingled some time between 45,000 and 49,000 years ago. The findings from Max Planck Institute anthropologist Arev Sümer and an intrernational team of colleagues are more recent than previous estimates.
Today, all humans except those with only African heritage bear the marks of this union in their DNA. The study's findings suggest this genetic exchange took place roughly 80 generations before the births of the individuals they tested, and as with previous research the results suggest such encounters likely happened more than once.
"Our analyses indicate that the Zlatý kůň/Ranis population split early from the lineage leading to other non-Africans and that they left no descendants among present-day people," the researchers write in their paper.
