Paleontologists have identified a new species of the extinct armadillo genus Parutaetus from fossilized osteoderms collected in the state of Paraná in southern Brazil. Hypothetical artistic reconstruction of Parutaetus oliveirai in the Middle-Late Eocene of Brazil. Image credit: Márcio L. Castro. Parutaetus oliveirai inhabited South America between 42 and 39 million years ago (Middle-Late Eocene
The Neanderthal groups that inhabited a cave in what is now Spain approximately 46,000 years ago gathered and collected fossils, according to a paper published in the journal Quaternary. Marine fossils from Prado Vargas Cave, Spain. Image credit: Ruiz et al., doi: 10.3390/quat7040049. Collecting is a form of leisure, and even a passion, consisting of
New research by scientists from the University of Reading and the University of Durham shows that encephalization (i.e., relative brain size increase) across 7 million years of hominin evolution arose from increases within individual species. Modern humans, Neanderthals, and other recent relatives on the human family tree evolved bigger brains much more rapidly than earlier
The Linear Pottery Culture (Linearbandkeramik, LBK) communities, which were the first to spread farming across large parts of Europe, showed no signs of population stratification, according to new research led by University of Vienna and Harvard University scientists. Prehistoric Central European women’s manual labor was tougher than rowing in today’s boat crews. “The expansion of
The newly-discovered exoplanet orbits TOI-3261 (also known as TIC 358070912), an inactive main-sequence star located 300 parsecs (978.5 light-years) away in the constellation of Hydrus. An artist’s concept of the ultrahot-Neptune exoplanet TOI-3261b. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / K. Miller, Caltech & IPAC. Named TOI-3261b (TIC 358070912b), the newfound exoplanet has a radius of
Drinking enough water can help with weight loss and prevent kidney stones, as well as migraines, urinary tract infections and low blood pressure, according to a new systematic review of 18 randomized clinical trials. In the systematic review of 18 randomized clinical trials, interventions of increased water intake (or decreased intake in one study) were
Paleoanthropologists have discovered 1.5-million-year-old footprints of two completely different species of hominins — Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei — at a same locality near Lake Turkana in Kenya. A 3D computerized model of the surface of the area near Lake Turkana in Kenya shows fossil footprints of Paranthropus boisei (vertical footprints) with separate footprints of
These Earth-size ovals at Jupiter’s north and south poles are visible only at ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths, and appear and disappear seemingly at random, according to a study led by astronomers from the University of California, Berkeley. A false-color ultraviolet image of the entire planet, showing the hood or cap of hydrocarbon haze that covers the
