prehistoric

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Before Dinosaurs, These Guys Had a Serious Eating Flaw

Rhynchosaurs had a single set of teeth they wore down to nubs, may have starved to death in old age

(Newser) - In the age before the towering dinosaurs we know so well from textbooks and Jurassic Park movies, an ugly-cute creature about the size of a pig called the rhynchosaur roamed the Earth, chomping on tough plants with a single row of teeth. As the New York Times reports, they were...

In This Tiny Excavated Tooth Lie 'Enormous' Implications

1.8M-year-old tooth found in Caucasus region may be sign of oldest human settlement outside of Africa

(Newser) - Two decades ago, two fossilized, almost complete 1.8-million-year-old skulls belonging to prehistoric humans Zezva and Mzia were discovered in Dmanisi, a couple of hours from the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. Now, a new find that "cements the region as the home of one of the earliest prehistoric human...

It Was Like TV for the Stone Age
It Was Like TV
for the Stone Age
new study
Apr 25, 2022 11:05 AM CDT

It Was Like TV for the Stone Age

Study suggests cave artists used firelight to animate their work around the hearth

(Newser) - A museumgoer who checks out a prehistoric drawing etched on a rock sees only the static image, safely housed under a glass case under controlled light. A new study suggests the people who first looked at the same rock saw something else entirely—a dynamic image that appeared to be...

Prehistoric Women Were Bad Moms? Not So Fast
Our View of Prehistoric
Mothers May Be Wrong
in case you missed it
Nov 27, 2021 3:30 PM CST

Our View of Prehistoric Mothers May Be Wrong

Study disputes idea they were bad caregivers

(Newser) - A new study suggests that we've been unfairly giving a bad rap to prehistoric mothers. Researchers from the Australian National University say the idea that early women were bad caregivers is based on a faulty interpretation of ancient burial sites, reports the Australian Associated Press . Because lots of infants...

50K Years Ago, Neanderthals Were Making String

Find hints at other abilities

(Newser) - It looked like a white splotch on the underside of a Neanderthal stone tool. But a microscope showed it was a bunch of fibers twisted around each other. Further examination revealed it was the first direct evidence that Neanderthals could make string, and the oldest known direct evidence for string-making...

Think Rowers Have Nice Arms? Ancient Women Had Them Beat
Prehistoric Women Had
Muscular Arms to Die For
NEW STUDY
Nov 30, 2017 10:49 AM CST

Prehistoric Women Had Muscular Arms to Die For

Stronger than those of today's elite female rowers

(Newser) - Pummeling grains for up to five hours a day gave prehistoric women the kind of muscular arms a girl only dreams of today. That's according to researchers at Cambridge University, who used CT scans to compare the upper arm and shinbones of 83 modern women with those of 94...

Montana Fossil Reveals Ancient Sea Creature

A long-gone inland sea still has secrets to give up

(Newser) - A fossil found by a Montana elk hunter nearly seven years ago has led to the discovery of a new species of prehistoric sea creature that lived about 70 million years ago in an inland sea that flowed east of the Rockies, the AP reports. The new elasmosaur species is...

Giant Prehistoric Otter Found—but Why So Big?
Giant Prehistoric Otter
Found—but Why So Big?
new study
Jan 24, 2017 2:40 PM CST

Giant Prehistoric Otter Found—but Why So Big?

The size of a wolf, the bite of a badger

(Newser) - Picture an otter, then envision it ballooning to twice—or triple, or quadruple—its size until it's a 110-pound creature: It's not a journey into the imagination, but to yesteryear. An international team of scientists has announced news of the largest otter ever found, one that lived some...

His Girlfriend's Dad Gave Him a Gift—One Lost for Decades

Sculpture went missing from a Colombian museum sometimes after 1939

(Newser) - There's a 1939 record of a small figurine being part of Colombia's National Museum's catalogue. From there, nothing: The sculpture vanished from the Cartagena museum, but there is no documentation regarding how or when. It's now been recovered, thanks to a conscientious art historian and the...

NC Beach Awash in Teeth From Bus-Sized Shark

The six-inch teeth suggest a 60-foot prehistoric giant

(Newser) - In recent days, beachgoers in North Topsail Beach and Surf City in North Carolina have been stumbling upon some rare teeth—some the size of an adult hand—which belonged to a supersized prehistoric shark called a megalodon. Aurora Fossil Museum experts say Hurricane Joaquin likely dredged up the previously...

Cave's 'Red Lady' Was Real Queen of the Stone Age

Woman who died 19K years ago received most elaborate burial in millennia

(Newser) - Stone Age hunter-gatherers weren't big on social hierarchies, let alone monarchies, researchers say, but a woman buried in a cave 18,700 years ago was clearly held in very high regard. The woman dubbed the "Red Lady," whose remains were unearthed in a cave in northern Spain,...

Stonehenge's Oldest Known Settlement Is Revealed

But it's already in danger thanks to tunnel plans

(Newser) - Researchers are exploring a settlement near Stonehenge dating to about 4000 BC, making it the area's oldest, the Telegraph reports. The Blick Mead encampment, as it's known, is from the Mesolithic period and was likely home to hunter-gatherers who headed to the spot before Britain became an island....

Did US Experts Just Resolve 'Darwin's Dilemma'?

He was bugged by the speed of evolution

(Newser) - Charles Darwin worried about a possible hole in his theory of evolution, but some American scientists may just have plugged it. For about a billion years after the dawn of life on Earth, organisms didn't evolve all that much. Then about 600 million years ago came the "Cambrian...

Experts Hunt for Prehistoric Culture Under Everglades Boardwalk

Search follows on 1968 discovery

(Newser) - Researchers are searching for an ancient culture in Everglades National Park, following up on work done decades ago. In 1968, after a pond in the park was dredged, a park ranger spotted a vast collection of what may have been tools and weapons, as well as remnants of marine life...

Sandstorms Reveal Ancient Designs in Peru Desert

Pilot spots newly exposed Nazca lines

(Newser) - Sandstorms in Peru have revealed mysterious designs believed to have been etched into the desert thousands of years ago. The newly exposed geoglyphs, discovered last week by a pilot flying over the region, include a snake nearly 200 feet long as well as a bird and some llama-like creatures, reports...

Oldest Human Poop Discovered

Neanderthal latrine reveals omnivorous diet

(Newser) - Neanderthals who squatted by a campfire in Spain around 50,000 years ago left something that has got today's scientists very excited. What is believed to be the oldest human poop ever discovered has yielded important information about the Neanderthal diet, Discovery reports. The leavings show that the Neanderthals...

Vandals Carve Initials in 1K-Year-Old Rock Art

Bureau of Land Management is on the case

(Newser) - It's called one of Utah's most prominent pieces of rock art. But as visitors made their way past the "Pregnant Buffalo" petroglyphs in Nine Mile Canyon on Memorial Day weekend, vandals decided to make their mark by carving initials and the date into the prehistoric piece, the...

New Fossil Find One of History's Greatest

3K fossils, 55 species found in Canada's Kootenay National Park

(Newser) - Researchers in Canada have made an "extraordinary" find: a vast collection of fossils that offer an in-depth look at prehistoric life. The site in Kootenay National Park is being compared to what experts call one of history's greatest fossil finds, a 1909 discovery about 26 miles away in...

Did a Flower Shortage Kill the Woolly Mammoth?

Or did a mammoth shortage kill the flowers?

(Newser) - Scary as they might have looked, woolly mammoths had a decidedly non-threatening diet: They feasted on small flowers, according to a new theory. And the decline of these once-abundant plants, called forbs, may explain the disappearance of the mammoths themselves, NPR reports. Experts had believed woolly mammoths ate grass, but...

Life May Have Originated Miles Underground

New research questions 'primordial soup' theory

(Newser) - The idea of a "primordial soup," in which life theoretically began in lakes and oceans, may be way off. New studies suggest the beginnings of life on this planet could have occurred deep underground, the Independent reports. Researchers have found microbes up to 3.1 miles below the...

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