https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Expanded excavations at White Sands National Park in New Mexico have provided researchers an opportunity to refine the age of the oldest human footprints in North America and establish a deeper understanding of the landscape and environmental conditions at the time humans were present there. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-white-sands-footprints-humans-experienced.html Earth Sciences Thu, 15 Oct 2026 19:20:08 EDT news711297661 A round hole in the shoulder blade (scapula) of a Neanderthal whose partial remains were unearthed in a cave in Iraqi Kurdistan may be the earliest known example of lethal interpersonal violence with a wooden spear in the hominin fossil record. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-fatal-neanderthal-wound-earliest-evidence.html Archaeology Thu, 15 Oct 2026 11:00:18 EDT news711273301 The area of water between Russia and North America and the Pacific and Arctic oceans is now known as the Bering Strait. Yet it was once what we call the Bering Land Bridge, an exposed land and maritime region that connected Asia to North America. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-bering-bridge-base-reveals-life.html Archaeology Wed, 14 Oct 2026 14:00:58 EDT news711185822 As Ted Schuur stepped along the edges of Smith Lake, a bubble surfaced from the muck underfoot. And then another. They're bubbles of methane, a potent heat-trapping gas made from decomposing plants and animals that had once been stuck in Alaska's frigid permafrost. But that frozen ground is thawing because the Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the globe. For thousands of years that frozen ground stored dead plants and animals, but the accelerating thaw is allowing them to decay into methane and carbon dioxide. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-gas-frozen-arctic-ground-slowly.html Environment Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:20:01 EDT news710069106 At the end of the last ice age, early humans crisscrossed the Americas following seasons, rivers and game, often with a trusty spear in hand. Nearly 13,000 years later, archaeologists are using those spearheads to study how America's first inhabitants understood risk. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ancient-spearheads-reveal-ice-age.html Archaeology Mon, 28 Sep 2026 17:20:05 EDT news709824662 When an abstract-looking ivory artifact emerged from the Hohle Fels cave in southern Germany in 2015, archaeologists didn't know quite what to make of it. Previously, the same cave had yielded what may be the world's oldest musical flutes, as well as one of humanity's earliest pieces of figurative art, the iconic Venus of Hohle Fels. At first glance, this strange new discovery—a 20-centimeter (8-inch) rod perforated with four small holes—seemed comparatively unspectacular. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-rope-twine-thread-invisible-technologies.html Archaeology Tue, 22 Sep 2026 09:20:04 EDT news709286574 Intricate designs engraved across the surface of 18,000-year-old female figurines carved from mammoth ivory were inspired by the distinctive growth patterns visible in the tusks, a new study published in the journal npj Heritage Science has revealed. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ice-age-carvers-mammoth-tusk.html Archaeology Wed, 16 Sep 2026 12:40:02 EDT news708770524 African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) travel incredibly long distances to search for a mate and new places to breed. They typically embark on these mammoth treks as young adults and often face numerous hazards along the way. These include busy highways, expanding human settlements and deadly wire poaching snares. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-wild-dogs-longest-journey-terrestrial.html Plants & Animals Tue, 15 Sep 2026 13:50:02 EDT news708696075 Woolly rhinoceroses (Coelodonta antiquitatis) were fascinating creatures: giant, lumbering Ice Age beasts with thick fur and massive horns that died out about 11,000 years ago. Previous genetic studies had left open the question of whether their genetic diversity emerged in high-latitude areas, like that of woolly mammoths, but a new analysis of ancient DNA and habitat models covering the past 500,000 years has revealed a different story. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-history-woolly-rhinos-werent-creatures.html Evolution Mon, 14 Sep 2026 11:30:01 EDT news708600903 Deep within an ancient sinkhole lie the remains of dozens of mammoths, prehistoric wanderers who waded into the warm springs to their deaths. These deaths had long been accepted as having occurred roughly 26,000 years ago, but new dates published in the journal Quaternary Research suggest these ice-age giants were more than 160,000 years old. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-luminescence-dating-age-south-dakota.html Plants & Animals Sun, 13 Sep 2026 12:40:02 EDT news708253643 With their slender bodies and long front legs, Miracinonyx trumani—often nicknamed the "American cheetah"—was long thought to be a North American analog of the African big cat. But in a new study published in the journal Current Biology, researchers reveal that the extinct cat was more closely related to pumas. Some populations living near the Arctic preyed almost exclusively on fish, challenging the long-held assumption that these "cheetahs" chased fast-running prey, such as pronghorns. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-extinct-american-cheetah.html Evolution Sun, 06 Sep 2026 11:00:01 EDT news707573172 Researchers with the long-running Harvard–Cornell Archaeological Exploration of Sardis have unearthed a larger-than-life statue estimated to be nearly 2,500 years old. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-mystery-statue-unearthed-sardis-archaeological.html Archaeology Mon, 24 Aug 2026 19:40:01 EDT news706803721 Researchers say a spike in temperatures during an ice age 304 million years ago could inform what climate scientists are learning about rapidly changing conditions today. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-late-paleozoic-ice-age-event.html Earth Sciences Tue, 11 Aug 2026 18:00:01 EDT news705672841 A new study by ancient DNA researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, used paleogenomics to create a genetic roadmap to help guide the restoration of another iconic species once on the brink of extinction: the North American bison. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-decoding-north-american-bison-genome.html Plants & Animals Thu, 06 Aug 2026 18:10:01 EDT news705256562 For the first time, researchers have discovered a new species of extinct amphibian from Ice Age Los Angeles at La Brea Tar Pits: a spadefoot toad they have named Spea labreae. Only one other extinct Pleistocene amphibian from North America has ever been found (a tree frog from Florida). https://phys.org/news/2026-08-species-ice-age-toad-la.html Ecology Wed, 05 Aug 2026 03:00:01 EDT news705052441 Analyzing ancient DNA from more than 500 mammoth bones, an international team of researchers found that Ice Age humans selectively targeted female woolly mammoths. The results of the study, published in Current Biology, show that, in contrast to the sex ratio among naturally occurring woolly mammoth remains, large bone accumulations associated with ancient human activity are dominated by females. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ancient-dna-reveals-ice-age.html Paleontology & Fossils Thu, 30 Jul 2026 11:00:09 EDT news704463301 Excavations at Hohle Fels Cave in the UNESCO World Heritage area of the Swabian Jura in southwestern Germany have again yielded two spectacular 40,000-year-old depictions of birds carved from mammoth ivory. The two figurines are the smallest discovered so far and are the size of a thumbnail, while still including many details. These remarkable finds come from the rich Aurignacian layers at Hohle Fels, which have produced some of the oldest figurative art known and date to the initial arrival of modern humans in the Upper Danube region. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ice-age-artists-thumbnail-size.html Archaeology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 17:40:01 EDT news704550903 SpaceX's mammoth Starship rocket blasted off Friday on another test flight stretching halfway around the world, this time releasing 20 of the most advanced Starlinks. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-spacex-starship-flight-advanced-starlinks.html Space Exploration Sat, 25 Jul 2026 13:15:07 EDT news704204084 With their ability to use tools, remember faces and even learn how to communicate with humans through sign language, nonhuman primates are considered to be among the smartest creatures on Earth. However, some concepts—geometry, for instance—have traditionally been thought of as beyond the abilities of humanity's closest cousins. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-children-monkeys-common-geometry.html Plants & Animals Mon, 20 Jul 2026 15:00:11 EDT news703766521 New research led by a University of Alaska Fairbanks archaeologist reveals that the earliest Native Americans had highly specialized diets, primarily hunting the largest animals on the landscape, and they targeted these megafauna consistently from Alaska to South America. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-earliest-americans-specialized-megafauna-alaska.html Archaeology Wed, 01 Jul 2026 19:20:04 EDT news702144361 There are currently 15 well-documented Late Pleistocene localities in North America in which Clovis points are found associated with proboscidean remains (of mammoth, mastodon and gomphothere). Archaeologists routinely assume these localities represent evidence that Clovis people hunted these multi-ton animals, and in turn invoke that evidence to claim humans had a role in the extinction of these large mammals. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-clovis-foragers-late-pleistocene-north.html Archaeology Wed, 01 Jul 2026 09:00:04 EDT news702027121 Archaeologists have long pictured prehistoric hunters taking down mammoths and other megafauna using the atlatl, a handheld spear-throwing device that uses leverage to achieve greater velocity and force when throwing darts. In particular, use of the atlatl was thought to be common in the Clovis culture in North America, which occurred roughly between 13,340 and 12,710 years ago. However, new research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that the atlatl probably didn't exist in the region until much later. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-iconic-spear-device-wasnt-prehistoric.html Archaeology Tue, 30 Jun 2026 11:20:04 EDT news702033159 Ground squirrel droppings, preserved for millennia in the Yukon's deep permafrost, have yielded an enormous amount of environmental DNA from dozens of species of plants, insects, microbes and large mammals, offering detailed genetic information about an environment that no longer exists. It is among the oldest ancient DNA ever recovered and sequenced. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ancient-ground-squirrel-reveal-arctic.html Evolution Tue, 09 Jun 2026 11:00:05 EDT news700130381 Scientists in Japan have developed a rat-mouse hybrid embryo from a single frozen rat chromosome transplanted into a mouse egg cell. The achievement is proof that genetic material can sometimes remain functional after cryopreservation and be expressed inside the cells of a completely different species. This is giving renewed hope to the idea that we may one day be able to partially resurrect extinct species and study lost traits. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-frozen-rat-chromosome-life-mouse.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 13:12:12 EDT news700143085 The wooly mammoth from Taimering (Bavaria, Germany), discovered in 2020, was buried in a former Ice Age pond after its death. Pollen findings and radiocarbon dating confirm that the mammoth lived and died during the harsh conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum. Cut marks on several ribs suggest that Paleolithic humans tampered with the carcass. An interdisciplinary research team initiated by SNSB paleontologist Gertrud Rößner and FAU geographer Christoph Mayr is now presenting the results of its scientific investigations in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, published in two parts. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-taimering-mammoth-butchered-hunters.html Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 03 Jun 2026 10:00:02 EDT news699695882 Insects are declining across Europe. Czech scientists have determined this decline can be mitigated by returning large ungulates—horses, aurochs cattle, and wisents—to landscapes. This has been shown by a recent study by a group of researchers from the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences (BC CAS), who surveyed five insect groups across eleven sites rewilded by large ungulates in Czechia. Their results have just been published in the Journal of Applied Ecology. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-trophic-rewilding-large-herbivores-insect.html Plants & Animals Tue, 26 May 2026 12:00:06 EDT news699011561 Elon Musk's SpaceX postponed the highly anticipated launch of its upgraded Starship megarocket, calling off Thursday's test after multiple countdown stops-and-starts. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-countdown-glitch-delays-starship-12th.html Space Exploration Fri, 22 May 2026 04:40:03 EDT news698642529 A biotech company that aims to resurrect lost creatures said Tuesday it has hatched live chicks in an artificial environment—a development that was met with mixed reviews from scientists and critics of its de-extinction mission. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-de-extinction-company-hatched-chicks.html Plants & Animals Tue, 19 May 2026 09:25:18 EDT news698401446 Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed ApexGO, a novel, AI-powered method for turning promising but imperfect antibiotic candidates into more potent ones. Unlike many existing AI approaches to antibiotic discovery, which screen large databases for molecules that might work, ApexGO starts with a small number of imperfect candidates and improves them step by step, using a predictive algorithm to evaluate each modification and guide the next. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-ai-tool-boosts-imperfect-antibiotic.html Biotechnology Wed, 13 May 2026 13:23:45 EDT news697897381 In 2024, the Western Australian Museum received a donation. It was a koala skull collected from Moondyne Cave in Margaret River by Lindsay Hatcher, an avid caver. There was something a bit odd about this skull, and we were able to put our finger in it. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-lost-koala-fossil-species-plain.html Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 06 May 2026 10:40:01 EDT news697281782