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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: prehistoric

prehistoric stories: 10 news summaries

(Newser) - Scientists have discovered a 47 million-year-old primate fossil that they believe represents the common ancestor of all later monkeys, apes, and humans, reports the Wall Street Journal. The find supports a theory that humans' ancient ape-like ancestor was an adapid, which is also believed to be linked to lemurs. The... More »

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paleontology • fossil • anthropology • skeleton • Neanderthals • prehistoric • Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology • primates

(Newser) - A nearly perfectly preserved 37,000-year-old baby mammoth is giving up tantalizing secrets about her species, scientists report. The creature, dubbed Lyuba by researchers, still sports clumps of hair and eyelashes, according to the Telegraph. Scientists have been able to examine stomach contents and the mineral makeup of the bones... More »

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Siberia • extinction • species • extinct • woolly mammoth • prehistoric • prehistoric mammals • Mammoth • ice age

 Skull Hints 
 at Caveman 
 Compassion 

Skull suggests ancient humans cared for sick

Mar 31, 09 1:02 PM CDT
(Newser) - Scientists have pieced together the skull of an ancient human who appears to have been deformed, but survived to at least age 5—suggesting he or she was cared for in spite of the handicap. That’s evidence for the existence of compassion in early humans, a trait other primates... More »

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skull • human behavior • human evolution • prehistoric • prehistoric mammals

(Newser) - Horses were domesticated 1,000 years earlier than thought, a finding that could prompt a rethinking of ancient human history, the BBC reports. A team from Exeter University found evidence of the use of harness bits on teeth—as well as horse meat and horse milk beverages—in Kazakhstan that... More »

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domestication • horse • Kazakhstan • human evolution • prehistoric • prehistoric mammals • ancient history • Bronze Age

Ancient Footprints
Reveal Path to Humanity

Tracks in Kenya are 1.5 million years old

Feb 28, 09 3:12 AM CST
(Newser) - Scientists have unearthed ancient footprints that reveal humanity's ancestors walked with a modern stride as long as 1.5 million years ago, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. Researchers believe the tracks—left beside a muddy river bank in Kenya and preserved when the river changed course—belong to human ancestor Homo ... More »

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Kenya • archaeology • fossil • anthropology • Homo erectus • prehistoric

(Newser) - A 45-foot, 1.25-ton snake stalked the jungles of South America in the period shortly after dinosaurs went extinct, the Times of London reports. Researchers have found 28 individual “Titanoboas” in Colombia’s Cerrejon Coal Mine; with every specimen at least 40 feet long, scientists say it’s likely... More »

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Colombia • paleontology • snake • dinosaur • scientists • prehistoric • Amazon rainforest

 Cavemen Were Stoners 

They rocked in stone-age in 'religious trances'

Oct 19, 08 12:36 PM CDT
(Newser) - Prehistoric man apparently liked to get stoned in the Stone Age, scientists have discovered. Researchers found paraphernalia on a Caribbean island used to prepare hallucinogenic drugs for sniffing, dating back to prehistoric high times, reports the Telegraph. Experts believe the ceramic bowls and tubers were used to inhale cohoba, used... More »

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drugs • prehistoric • hallucinogenic • cavemen

 Did We Slaughter
 the Neanderthals?

DNA probe sheds light on early humans' doom 

Aug 8, 08 8:20 AM CDT
(Newser) - Analysis of DNA from a thigh bone is helping solve the longstanding question of what happened to Neanderthals. Did they simply die off, were they killed by more modern humans—or did the two groups interbreed? DNA from the Neanderthal bone is so different from that of modern humans that... More »

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human evolution • Neanderthals • prehistoric • DNA evidence

 Stonehenge Riddle Solved?  

Bluestones may prove site was a healing temple

May 4, 08 3:48 PM CDT
(Newser) - A British team has excavated Stonehenge in hope of showing it was once a temple used for healing, the Los Angeles Times reports. Archaeologists focused on the site's 4,000-year-old bluestones, a twin circle of huge rocks, for proof of their origins and purpose. Shamans and witch doctors once likely... More »

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archaeology • Stonehenge • prehistoric • excavation • ceremony • temple • bluestone

Mold Threatens Cave Paintings 

Cave will be sealed for up to four months for treatment

Dec 9, 07 8:30 AM CST
(Newser) - They've existed for thousands of years but it's the lowly fungus that could finally be the death of France's most famous prehistoric cave paintings. Invading gray and black mold is threatening the animal images in the Lascaux cave in southwestern France, and scientists are uncertain what has caused it. The... More »

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France • painting • fungus • Cavemen • caves • cave paintings • prehistoric

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