850,000-year-old human footprints found in Norfolk

850,000-year-old human footprints found in Norfolk:

Happisburgh prints believed to have been left by small group of adults and children are the oldest discovered outside Africa

The oldest human footprints found outside Africa, dated at between 850,000 and 950,000 years old, have been discovered on the storm-lashed beach at Happisburgh in Norfolk, one of the fastest-eroding stretches of the British coast. Within a fortnight, the sea tides that had exposed the prints last May destroyed them, leaving only casts and 3D images made through photogrammetry (stitching together hundreds of photographs) as evidence that a little group from a long-extinct early human species had passed that way.

H/t reader kevin a.

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New Tech Brings 2,000-Year-Old Mummy of Little Egyptian Girl to Life in Stunning Detail

New Tech Brings 2,000-Year-Old Mummy of Little Egyptian Girl to Life in Stunning Detail:

CT and colorful 3D scans combine to create a stunningly detailed depiction of a mummy of a girl. She was only about five years old when she passed away 2,000 years ago. Her body was wrapped in fine linen and she was laid to rest with a Roman-style necklace, amulet, and large round earrings. Now all those elements have become visible in lifelike detail.

According to Live Science , scientists today call the child mummy “Sherit,” an ancient Egyptian name meaning “little one.” She lived in Egypt while the country was reigned over by the Romans and her burial style and the grave goods accompanying her body indicate she was part of a wealthy family . It is believed the girl died of dysentery or meningitis.

H/t reader kevin a.

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Flying flesh-eating dinosaur the size of a plane discovered in Mongolia

Flying flesh-eating dinosaur the size of a plane discovered in Mongolia:

A MASSIVE flying ancient beast that was size of a small plane and could swallow other horse-sized dinosaurs whole has been found in the Gobi Desert.

The dinosaur had enormous 36ft long wings and would be one of the largest winged reptiles ever known to live on Earth, reports The Sun.

The giant lived 70 million years ago in a warm climate that was desert-like but not quite as dry as today.

H/t reader kevin a.

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9.7 Million-Year-Old Teeth Found in Germany Belong to Hominin Only Known To Have Existed in Africa 4 Million Years Later

9.7 Million-Year-Old Teeth Found in Germany Belong to Hominin Only Known To Have Existed in Africa 4 Million Years Later:

Archaeologists have made a discovery so sensational that they have waited 1 year to announce it as they had to be sure they had the dating correct. A set of teeth belonging to an early hominin species has been found in Germany that dates back 9.7 million years.  Could this finding be another nail in the coffin for the out-of-Africa theory of human origins?

It was only one month ago that scientists made the surprising announcement of 5.7 million-year-old hominin footprints on the island of Crete in Greece. Many responded with disbelief, as such a discovery suggests that the earliest human ancestors wandered around Europe at the same time or even earlier than Africa, drawing into question the widely-believed theory that humans emerged in Africa before spreading out to the rest of the world. Now the finding of 9.7 million-year-old hominin teeth in Germany supports the possibility that the out-of-Africa theory is wrong.

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Recently Discovered 6 Million-Year-Old Hominin Footprints Have Just Been Vandalized and Some Stolen

Recently Discovered 6 Million-Year-Old Hominin Footprints Have Just Been Vandalized and Some Stolen:

There has been a lot of interest in our discovery of nearly-6m-year-old footprints on Crete, first reported by the The Conversation – suggesting that human ancestors could have roamed Europe at the same time as they were evolving in East Africa. Sadly the site was vandalised in the last week, with four or five of the 29 tracks stolen.

We are fortunate that many of the best tracks remain – the people who did it clearly didn’t know what they were looking for. Our guess is that they were simply intending to sell them.

The theft occurred despite the site being afforded protection under Greek heritage law and being in the care of local officials. Police, we are told, have made an arrest in connection with the incident, and it is hoped that the missing material will be returned soon. The damage, however, is irreparable.

H/t reader kevin a.

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The First Adhesive Was Invented by Neanderthals 200,000 Years Ago

The First Adhesive Was Invented by Neanderthals 200,000 Years Ago:

Neanderthals — early members of the genus Homo from Europe and Asia — have had such a lowly standing on the human family tree that the very word Neanderthal is often synonymous with archaic ways and ignorance.

Neanderthals, however, had big brains, complex societies, and tools so useful that some designs created for leatherworking are still in use today. Many researchers even believe that a true extinction of Neanderthals might not have occurred, but that these individuals instead were absorbed into what evolved to be current Homo sapiens. To this day, people of European and Asian heritage retain Neanderthal DNA.

Read moreThe First Adhesive Was Invented by Neanderthals 200,000 Years Ago

Footprint find on Crete may push back date humans began to walk upright

Footprint find on Crete may push back date humans began to walk upright:

HUMAN-like footprints have been found on an ancient sea shore. They shouldn’t be there. They’re in the wrong place at the wrong time.

HUMAN-like footprints have been found stamped into an ancient sea shore fossilised beneath the Mediterranean island of Crete.

They shouldn’t be there.

Testing puts the rock’s age at 5.7 million years.

That’s a time when palaeontologists believe our human ancestors had only apelike feet.

And they lived in Africa.

But a study into the Trachilos, western Crete, prints determines them to feature prominent human features and an upright stance.

H/t reader kevin a.

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Researchers Discover a 124,000-year-old thigh bone containing MODERN DNA

History changer? A 124,000-year-old thigh bone contains MODERN DNA:

Researchers have discovered that a 124,000-year-old bone contains MODERN DNA. According to experts, the thigh bone could force us to completely rewrite everything we thought we know about our origins and human history.

The startling new discovery—a Neanderthal femur bone—discovered some 80 years ago is forcing experts to rethink everything they thought they knew about humans on our planet.

A new study published in the journal Nature Communications explains that a 124,000-year-old Neanderthal fossil—dug up in Germany from the Hohlenstein-Stadel Cave—contains MODERN DNA. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the University of Tübingen analyzed mitochondrial DNA from the femur bone.

Read moreResearchers Discover a 124,000-year-old thigh bone containing MODERN DNA

Mysterious Underwater Ruins in Turkish Lake Found To Be A 1,600-Year-Old Basilica

Mysterious Underwater Ruins in Turkish Lake Found To Be A 1,600-Year-Old Basilica:

Archaeologists were surprised to discover that “weird ruins” in a Turkish lake are actually a nearly 1,600-year-old basilica. Moreover, the city associated with the submerged church has been a key site for religious history. The martyr linked to this church allegedly had unique powers and could bring water forth from a stone. Now there are elaborate plans to turn the basilica into an underwater museum.

Ancient Nicaea, modern day Iznik, in Turkey has central importance to the history of Christianity. In 325 AD it was the site of the first ecumenical council – the one responsible for clarifying the orthodox Christian position on the divinity of Christ and his relation to God and humanity. It is also the location of the last ecumenical council, which took place in 787 AD and settled the issue of iconoclasm (whether icons were a form of idolatry.) It has been the location of many churches and visited by many saints. As a result, it is fitting that a relatively recent archaeological find near Iznik is the discovery of a submerged basilica which may be associated with the martyred saint Neophytus of Nicaea.

H/t reader kevin a.

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Tutankhamun’s Scarab Brooch Was Born of a 28-Million-Year Old Comet Strike

Tutankhamun’s Scarab Brooch Was Born of a 28-Million-Year Old Comet Strike:

When Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon first discovered the chambers of treasures of the 18th Dynasty pharaoh Tutankhamun in 1922, it was a phenomenal event in historical discovery. One remarkable, though tiny, component of that haul was result of a phenomenal event that occurred 28 million years earlier. The impact of this incomprehensively ancient comet that had come hurtling through the cosmos to collide with the Earth, created a component which was subsequently used as the centerpiece of King Tut’s brooch.

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7.2 million-Year-Old Pre-Human Fossil Suggests Mankind Arose in Europe NOT Africa

7.2 million-Year-Old Pre-Human Fossil Suggests Mankind Arose in Europe NOT Africa

A new analysis of two 7.2 million-year-old fossils belonging to a hominin species nicknamed “El Graeco” from Mediterranean Europe, suggests that mankind emerged in Europe and not in Africa. The new study could reshape history, since it openly challenges the “out of Africa theory.”

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Humans in America ‘115,000 years earlier than thought’

Humans in America ‘115,000 years earlier than thought’:

High-tech dating of mastodon remains found in southern California has shattered the timeline of human migration to America, pushing the presence of hominins back to 130,000 years ago rather than just 15,000 years, researchers said Wednesday.

H/t reader kevin a.

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