Questions raised about US museum's Abraham Lincoln hat
It has been a question plaguing the museum dedicated to one of America's greatest presidents: Is the hat real?
Last update France reverses car tyre sea sanctuary—an environmental flop, 1 hour ago
Archaeology & Fossils news
Archaeologists celebrate spectacular discovery of Iron Age treasure
In the year 536 CE, a volcano erupted in El Salvador.
Ancient treasures on show in Germany reveal turbulent past
An arrowhead firmly lodged in the skull of an ancient fallen warrior, a voluptuous woman's form carved from ivory and the mask of a Roman river god are among more than 1,000 major archaeological discoveries being brought ...
What makes a mammal a mammal? Our spine, say scientists
Mammals are unique in many ways. We're warm-blooded and agile in comparison with our reptilian relatives.
Fat from 558 million years ago reveals earliest known animal
Scientists from The Australian National University (ANU) and overseas have discovered molecules of fat in an ancient fossil to reveal the earliest confirmed animal in the geological record that lived on Earth 558 million ...
Aboriginal people lived in Australia's desert interior 50,000 years ago, earlier than first thought
New evidence shows that people have lived inland in Western Australia for more than 50,000 years. That's 10,000 years earlier than previously known for Australian deserts.
Japan's largest complete dinosaur skeleton comes to life
The unearthed bones of Mukawaryu, Japan's largest complete dinosaur skeleton, have now been prepared and pieced together, giving us a fuller and clearer image of the 72 million-year-old dinosaur.
Research finds Aboriginals lived in Western Desert 50,000 years ago
Archaeologists from The University of Western Australia working with Traditional Custodians from the Birriliburru Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) have recovered evidence that people lived in the Australian arid zone 50,000 ...
Oldest-known aquatic reptiles probably spent time on land
The oldest known aquatic reptiles, the mesosaurs, probably spent part of their life on land, reveals a new study published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. The fossilized bones of adult Mesosaurus share similarities ...
Remains of weapons, sandals and coins shed new light on Roman conquest of Northwest Iberia
Newly discovered remains of weapons, hobnails from sandals and coins will help experts piece together the untold story of how the Romans won control of Galicia and Northern Portugal from local tribes for the first time.
Research shows SE Asian population boom 4,000 years ago
Researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) have uncovered a previously unconfirmed population boom across South East Asia that occurred 4,000 years ago, thanks to a new method for measuring prehistoric population ...
Study shows synchronous human energy consumption over the past 10,000 years
University of Wyoming researchers contributed to a study that begins to fill in the knowledge gap of whether human societies grow and decline at the same rate and at the same time.
Tiny fossils reveal how shrinking was essential for successful evolution
A new study published today in Nature shows that getting smaller was a key factor contributing to the exceptional evolution of mammals over the last 200 million years.
Digitizing the vast 'dark data' in museum fossil collections
The great museums of the world harbor a secret: They're home to millions upon millions of natural history specimens that almost never see the light of day. They lie hidden from public view, typically housed behind or above ...
Fossils reveal diverse Mesozoic pollinating lacewings
Insect pollination played an important role in the evolution of angiosperms. Little is known, however, about ancient pollination insects and their niche diversity during the pre-angiosperm period due to the rarity of fossil ...
Ancient altar reveals Mayan 'Game of Thrones' dynasty
A 1,500 year old Mayan altar discovered in a small archeological site in northern Guatemala is drawing comparisons to popular fantasy drama television series "Game of Thrones" for its descriptions of the Kaanul dynasty's ...
Half-billion-year-old fossils offer new clues to how life exploded on the sea floor
Stephen Pates, a researcher from Oxford University's Department of Zoology, has uncovered secrets from the ancient oceans.
Thousands of objects discovered in Scandinavia's first Viking city
If you want to know anything about the Viking Age, Ribe, in west Denmark, is the place to go.
Ancient bird bones redate human activity in Madagascar by 6,000 years
Analysis of bones, from what was once the world's largest bird, has revealed that humans arrived on the tropical island of Madagascar more than 6,000 years earlier than previously thought—according to a study published ...
Wild animals were routinely captured and traded in ancient Mesoamerica
New evidence from the Maya city of Copan, in Honduras, reveals that ancient Mesoamericans routinely captured and traded wild animals for symbolic and ritual purposes, according to a study published September 12, 2018 in the ...
Drawing on a piece of silcrete found in Blombos Cave predates previous human-made drawings by at least 30,000 years
The earliest evidence of a drawing made by humans has been found in Blombos Cave in the southern Cape in South Africa.
What would it mean to decolonise palaeontology? Here are some ideas
The call by students to "decolonise science" still rings in many South African academics' ears. But discussions about what t might entail, or even if it's necessary, are fraught.
New evidence supports the hypothesis that beer may have been motivation to cultivate cereals
Stanford University archaeologists are turning the history of beer on its head.
Understanding 6th-century barbarian social organization and migration through paleogenomics
Applying a comprehensive analysis of genetic, historical, and archeological factors in two 6th-century barbarian cemeteries, researchers have gleaned new insights into a key era known as the Migration Period that laid the ...
New book connects ancient clues to give voice to silent cultures
Besides working as the engineering school's associate dean for undergraduate affairs, Peter Bogucki is a noted archaeologist specializing in Neolithic cultures of northern Europe. His recent book, The Barbarians, received ...
Secrets of early human ancestors could be unlocked by African rainforests
Think of rainforests and the picture is inevitably one of a dark and forbidding realm where life is abundant, yet alarmingly cryptic. Rather than the sense of space offered by long, iconic grassland vistas, distance is compressed ...
What Anglo Saxon teeth can tell us about modern health
Evidence from the teeth of Anglo Saxon children could help identify modern children most at risk from conditions such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
New technology tells us which animal bones were used to make ancient tools
Animals played an important role in prehistoric societies. They were a source of food, raw material, and, sometimes, reverence. Their bones were also used to create tools – for instance, arrowheads. The use of animal bone ...
Evidence of 7,200-year-old cheese making found on the Dalmatian Coast
Analysis of fatty residue in pottery from the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia revealed evidence of fermented dairy products—soft cheeses and yogurts—from about 7,200 years ago, according to an international team of researchers.
DNA of early medieval Alemannic warriors and their entourage decoded
In 1962, an Alemannic burial site containing human skeletal remains was discovered in Niederstotzingen (Baden-Württemberg, Germany). Researchers at the Eurac Research Centre in Bozen-Bolzano, Italy, and at the Max Planck ...
Chinese fossils reveal middle-late Triassic insect radiation
Recently, scientists from China and the UK reported two Middle-Late Triassic entomofaunas, providing not only the earliest records of several modern insect elements, but also new insights into the early evolution of freshwater ...
Strands of hair from member of Franklin expedition provide new clues into mystery
A new analysis of human hair taken from the remains of one of the members of the Franklin expedition, is providing further evidence that lead poisoning was just one of many different factors contributing to the deaths of ...
Ashkenazic Jews' mysterious origins unravelled by scientists thanks to ancient DNA
Where do the Jewish people come from? This is a question that anthopologists, historians and theologists have studied for millennia.
Museum: Centuries old Torah not burned in Rio blaze
Brazil's National Museum said Wednesday that centuries-old Torah scrolls, considered to be some of Judaism's oldest documents, had been moved before a massive fire ravaged the place and gutted much of the largest collections ...
Turtle shells served as symbolic musical instruments for indigenous cultures
Turtles served as more than tasty treats for many Native American tribes throughout North America.
Virtual reality tour brings biblical-era Jerusalem to life
A Jerusalem museum is breathing life into the ancient city with a new virtual reality tour that allows visitors to experience how archaeologists believe Jerusalem looked 2,000 years ago.
Researchers hope some objects survived Brazil museum fire
Researchers held out hope that a famed skull and other valuable objects might somehow be recovered from the ashes of a massive blaze that tore through Brazil's National Museum after firefighters found bone fragments from ...
Coastal strip in Brazil sheds new light on early farming
Humans may have been cultivating plants on a narrow coastal strip in Brazil as far back as 4,800 years ago, according to a new study.
Burned National Museum in Rio had relics from around world
Brazil's National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, which suffered a massive fire late Sunday, boasted the largest archive of historical artifacts and documents in Latin America, some 20 million pieces from around the globe. Museum ...
A portrait of ancient elephant-like mammals drawn from multiproxy analysis
Although world-famous consulting detective Sherlock Holmes prided himself on his deductive prowess, in truth, a great many of his astounding observations resulted from inductive reasoning, by which he arrived at conclusions ...
Newly discovered dinosaurs fill in evolutionary gap spanning 70 million years
Two newly discovered dinosaurs may be missing links in an unusual lineage of predators that lived between 160 million and 90 million years ago, new research suggests.
Are the Paleozoic era's giant dragonflies still among us?
Don't worry. This isn't an announcement of a new invasion from elsewhere, but a leap into the past in the Paleozoic: the time of giant insects, 100 million years before the dinosaurs, during which insects also had their T-Rex: ...
Egypt says village found in Nile Delta predated pharaohs
Egypt said Sunday that archeologists have unearthed one of the oldest villages ever found in the Nile Delta, with remains dating back to before the pharaohs.
Late to the party, German carmakers join race against Tesla
After years watching Tesla's electric cars speed ahead while they have been on the defensive over an industry-wide diesel emissions scandal, German high-end manufacturers have finally unveiled their first challengers to the ...
Japan space robots start asteroid survey
A pair of robot rovers have landed on an asteroid and begun a survey, Japan's space agency said Saturday, as it conducts a mission aiming to shed light on the origins of the solar system.
First to red planet will become Martians: Canada astronaut
Astronauts traveling through space on the long trip to Mars will not have the usual backup from mission control on Earth and will need to think of themselves as Martians to survive, Canada's most famous spaceman half-jokingly ...
Historian angers group who proposed labeling late Holocene as Meghalayan Age
Guy Middleton, a historian at the Czech Institute of Egyptology at Charles University in Prague, has angered members of the group who successfully pushed for the creation of a new unit of geological time called the Meghalayan ...
Spray-on antennas could unlock potential of smart, connected technology
The promise of wearables, functional fabrics, the Internet of Things, and their "next-generation" technological cohort seems tantalizingly within reach. But researchers in the field will tell you a prime reason for their ...
Origami opens up smart options for architecture on the Moon and Mars
Origami and high-performance textiles are transforming architecture plans for smart human habitats and research stations on the Moon and Mars. Initial field tests of the MoonMars project's origami prototype will be presented ...
Emissions from most diesel cars in Europe greatly exceed laboratory testing levels
In September 2015, the German automaker Volkswagen was found to have illegally cheated federal emissions tests in the United States, by intentionally programming emissions control devices to turn on only during laboratory ...
Subducting slabs of the Earth's crust may generate unusual features spotted near the core
Nearly 1,800 miles below the earth's surface, there are large odd structures lurking at the base of the mantle, sitting just above the core. The mantle is a thick layer of hot, mostly plastic rock that surrounds the core; ...
New observations to understand the phase transition in quantum chromodynamics
The building blocks of matter in our universe were formed in the first 10 microseconds of its existence, according to the currently accepted scientific picture. After the Big Bang about 13.7 billion years ago, matter consisted ...
Amazon aims to make Alexa assistant bigger part of users' lives
From the kitchen to the car, Amazon on Thursday sought to make its Alexa digital assistant and online services a bigger part of people's lives with an array of new products and partnerships.
New battery gobbles up carbon dioxide
A new type of battery developed by researchers at MIT could be made partly from carbon dioxide captured from power plants. Rather than attempting to convert carbon dioxide to specialized chemicals using metal catalysts, which ...
Japan space probe drops hopping rovers towards asteroid
A Japanese space probe Friday released a pair of exploring rovers towards an egg-shaped asteroid to collect mineral samples that may shed light on the origin of the solar system.
Ocean acidification may reduce sea scallop fisheries
Each year, fishermen harvest more than $500 million worth of Atlantic sea scallops from the waters off the east coast of the United States. A new model created by scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), ...
Three NASA missions return first-light data
NASA's continued quest to explore our solar system and beyond received a boost of new information this week with three key missions proving not only that they are up and running, but that their science potential is exceptional. ...
New nanotherapy offers hope in treating drug-resistant renal cell carcinoma
A research team led by Arun Iyer, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences in the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Wayne State University, has developed a nanoplatform technology that ...
Scientists reveal the hidden costs of cobalt mining in DR Congo
In recent years, the demand for cobalt, a crucial component of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for smartphones and electric cars, has been on the increase. Around 60 percent of the world's cobalt supply comes from the ...
On-demand room-temperature single photon array—a quantum communication breakthrough
Physicists at The City College of New York have used atomically thin two-dimensional materials to realize an array of quantum emitters operating at room temperature that can be integrated into next generation quantum communication ...
Graphene bilayer provides efficient transport and control of spins
University of Groningen physicists in collaboration with a theoretical physics group from Universität Regensburg have built an optimized bilayer graphene device that displays both long spin lifetimes and electrically controllable ...
Neutrons produce first direct 3-D maps of water during cell membrane fusion
New 3-D maps of water distribution during cellular membrane fusion are accelerating scientific understanding of cell development, which could lead to new treatments for diseases associated with cell fusion. Using neutron ...
Combining multiple CCTV images could help catch suspects
Combining multiple poor quality CCTV images into a single, computer-enhanced composite could improve the accuracy of facial recognition systems used to identify criminal suspects, new research suggests.
Mobile device could make it easier to predict and control harmful algal blooms
In the past 10 years, harmful algal blooms—sudden increases in the population of algae, typically in coastal regions and freshwater systems—have become a more serious problem for marine life throughout the U.S. The blooms ...
Scientists solve the golden puzzle of calaverite
Scientists from Russia and Germany have shed light on the crystalline structure of calaverite, foretelling the existence of a new gold compound previously unknown to chemists. The results of their study were published in ...
Perovskite semiconductors seeing right through next generation X-ray detectors
From observing celestial objects to medical imaging, the sensitive detection of X-rays plays a central role in countless applications. However, the methods used to detect them have undergone an interesting evolution of their ...
How quinoa plants shed excess salt and thrive in saline soils
Barely heard of a couple of years ago, quinoa today is common on European supermarket shelves. The hardy plant thrives even in saline soils. Researchers from the University of Würzburg have now determined how the plant gets ...
Sparrow in a lead mine—birds adapt to life in contaminated areas
A new study of house sparrows' genes has found the first evidence of animals adapting to lead contamination in heavily polluted areas of Australia.
To improve auto coatings, new tests do more than scratch the surface
Know that sickening feeling when you exit the grocery store and find your car has been banged up by a runaway shopping cart? It may one day be just a bad memory if auto body manufacturers make use of a new suite of tests ...
Researchers report simpler method for safely handling methanethiol in chemical synthesis
The chemical element sulfur is an important constituent in many pharmaceuticals, and consequently, it is desirable to introduce sulfur-containing fragments efficiently in a broad range of chemical compounds. The Skrydstrup ...
Synthetic organelle shows how tiny puddle-organs in our cells work
A couple of sugars, a dash of enzymes, a pinch of salt, a splash of polyethylene glycol, carefully arranged in watery baths. And researchers had made a synthetic organelle, which they used in a new study to explore some odd ...
First detection of matter falling into a black hole at 30 percent of the speed of light
A UK team of astronomers report the first detection of matter falling into a black hole at 30 percent of the speed of light, located in the centre of the billion-light year distant galaxy PG1211+143. The team, led by Professor ...
Astrophysicists measure precise rotation pattern of sun-like stars for the first time
Sun-like stars rotate up to two and a half times faster at the equator than at higher latitudes, a finding by researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi that challenges current science on how stars rotate.
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