Ancient microbes may help us find extraterrestrial life forms
Ancient microbes may help us find extraterrestrial life forms Using light-capturing proteins in living microbes, scientists have reconstructed what life was like for some of Earth’s earliest organisms. These efforts could help us recognize signs of life on other planets, whose atmospheres may more closely resemble our pre-oxygen planet. The earliest living things, including bacteria …
6,000-Year-Old Settlement Found Outside Stonehenge Could Rewrite British History
6,000-Year-Old Settlement Found Outside Stonehenge Could “Rewrite British History” The culture that built Stonehenge might be much older than previously thought. In research that could “rewrite” long-established British history, University of Buckingham archaeologists have discovered a 6,000-year-old Mesolithic settlement located close to the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge. The discovery of the site, which predates Stonehenge …
Timber From 17th-Century Spanish Shipwreck Discovered In Caves Off Oregon’s Coast
Timber From 17th-Century Spanish Shipwreck Discovered In Caves Off Oregon’s Coast In 1693, the Santo Cristo de Burgos, a Manila galleon loaded with silk, porcelain and beeswax, set sail from the Philippines on a trading expedition to Mexico. But the ship—and its valuable cargo—never reached its destination. Instead, the vessel ended up shipwrecked off the …
Mummified remains of a 30,000-year-old baby mammoth found in Canadian gold fields
Mummified remains of a 30,000-year-old baby mammoth found in Canadian gold fields A gold miner found a mummified baby woolly mammoth in the Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin Traditional Territory in Yukon, Canada. According to a press release from the local government, the female baby mammoth has been named Nun cho ga by the First Nation Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in elders, which …
Pompeii: Ancient pregnant tortoise surprises archaeologists
Pompeii: Ancient pregnant tortoise surprises archaeologists When Mount Vesuvius erupted nearly 2,000 years ago Pompeii’s ancient residents were frozen in place by ash. So too it turns out we’re the city’s flora and fauna – including a pregnant tortoise with her egg. Archaeologists found the reptile’s remains buried under ash and rock where it had …
Researchers Return to Greece’s Antikythera Shipwreck
Researchers Return to Greece’s Antikythera Shipwreck The so-called Antikythera mechanism, recovered from the wreckage of an ancient cargo ship off the coast of Antikythera Island in Greece, might be the world’s oldest analogue computer. The mystery surrounding its purpose and origin continues to fascinate scientists and enthusiasts alike to this day. But it’s not the …
500-Year-Old Tomb Found in Peru
500-Year-Old Tomb Found in Peru Scientists have unearthed an Inca-era tomb under a home in the heart of Peru’s capital, Lima, a burial believed to hold remains wrapped in cloth alongside ceramics and fine ornaments. The lead archaeologist, Julio Abanto, told Reuters the 500-year-old tomb contained “multiple funerary bundles” тιԍнтly wrapped in cloth. He said …
Second Possible Seventh-Century Mosque Uncovered in Israel
Second Possible Seventh-Century Mosque Uncovered in Israel Three years after finding one of the world’s earliest rural mosques in southern Israel, archaeologists have found a second one in the same town. Both mosques were discovered during different stages of salvation excavations in the Bedouin town of Rahat, in the northern Negev, the Israel Antiquities Authority …
Aboriginal Artwork In The Kimberley Could Be Among Oldest In The World, Scientists Say
Aboriginal Artwork In The Kimberley Could Be Among Oldest In The World, Scientists Say Archaeologists and Aboriginal elders are hoping the most comprehensive study of rock art in the Kimberley region will confirm the images are among the oldest made by humans anywhere in the world. More than a dozen scientists took part in two …
700,000-Year-Old Stone Tools Point To Mysterious Human Relative
700,000-Year-Old Stone Tools Point To Mysterious Human Relative Someone butchered a rhinoceros in the Philippines hundreds of thousands of years before modern humans arrived — but who? by Michael Greshko, National Geographic Stone tools found in the Philippines predate the arrival of modern humans to the islands by roughly 600,000 years — but researchers aren’t sure …