5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

From the warm and fuzzy to the downright icy, this week has brought news of some amazing finds:

1. Crazy Shipwreck Find: 2K-Year-Old Roman Food? After more than 80 years of reports from fishermen that they were bringing up Roman pottery shards and artifacts in their nets off the coast of Italy, divers decided to take a look. What they found is most peculiar.
2. Clue to Near-Death Experiences Uncovered: Scientists studied the brains of nine rats as they were being euthanized, and what they discovered just after the rats' hearts stopped may explain the so-called "near-death experiences" described by many people.

3. New Species a 'Cross Between Teddy Bear, House Cat': Scientists have discovered the first new mammalian carnivore species in the Americas in 35 years, and it's being met with a resounding "Awww!" The olinguito "looks kind of like a fuzzball," says the Smithsonian's curator of mammals. But the story of its discovery features a weird twist.
4. Truth About Last Ice Age Found in Antarctic Ice: Scientists have now analyzed about half of the longest ice core ever drilled by the US, taking them back through 30,000 years of annual Antarctic ice layers. And what they've learned is that Antarctica wasn't late to the party during the planet's last ice age.
5. 'Bad Handwriting May Settle Shakespeare Mystery: It's been a nearly 200-year-long debate: Did William Shakespeare add 325 lines to Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy nearly a decade after Kyd's death? A University of Texas professor says the proof may be in the handwriting—and bad handwriting at that.

Click for more of the week's incredible discoveries, which include the oldest rock art ever found in North America. (More discoveries stories.)