ScienceDaily: Fossils & Ruins NewsArticles in anthropology, archaeology, evolution theory and paleontology. Read the latest discoveries from archaeological sites and research institutes around the world. Images, updated daily.Brain Morphology Of Homo Liujiang Cranium Fossil Detailed With 3-D CT Scan- July 21, 2008 High-resolution industrial computed tomography was used to scan the Homo Liujiang cranium fossil, and the three-dimensional virtual brain image was reconstructed. The brain morphology of Liujiang is assigned to Late Homo sapiens.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080716085125.htm Athapaskan Migration To Southwest U.S. Illuminated With Y Chromosome Study- July 21, 2008 A large-scale genetic study of native North Americans offers new insights into the migration of a small group of Athapaskan natives from their subarctic home in northwest North America to the southwestern United States. The migration, which left no known archaeological trace, is believed to have occurred about 500 years ago.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080715104932.htm Natural Selection May Not Produce The Best Organisms- July 21, 2008 "Survival of the fittest" is the catch phrase of evolution by natural selection. While natural selection favors the most fit organisms around, evolutionary biologists have long wondered whether this leads to the best possible organisms in the long run. A team of researchers has developed a new theory, which suggests that life may not always be optimal.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080717201837.htm Archaeologists Trace Early Irrigation Farming In Ancient Yemen- July 21, 2008 In the remote desert highlands of southern Yemen, a team of archaeologists have discovered new evidence of ancient transitions from hunting and herding to irrigation agriculture 5,200 years ago.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080716140918.htm Volcanic Eruptions May Have Wiped Out Ocean Life 94 Million Years Ago- July 18, 2008 University of Alberta scientists contend they have the answer to mass extinction of animals and plants 93 million years ago. The answer, research has uncovered, has been found at the bottom of the sea floor where lava fountains erupted, altering the chemistry of the sea and possibly of the atmosphere.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080717095027.htm From Humming Fish To Puccini: Vocal Communication Evolved With Ancient Species- July 18, 2008 It's a long way from the dull hums of the amorous midshipman fish to the strains of a Puccini aria -- or, alas, even to the simplest Celine Dion melody. But the neural circuitry that led to the human love song -- not to mention birdsongs, frog thrums and mating calls of all manner of vertebrates -- was likely laid down hundreds of millions of years ago with the hums and grunts of the homely piscine.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080717140435.htm Glimpses Of Earliest Forms Of Life On Earth: Remnant Of Ancient 'RNA World' Discovered- July 18, 2008 Some bacterial cells can swim, morph into new forms and even become dangerously virulent -- all without initial involvement of DNA. Researchers describe how bacteria accomplish this amazing feat in the journal Science -- and in doing so provide a glimpse of what the earliest forms of life on Earth may have looked like.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080717140459.htm First Humans To Settle Americas Came From Europe, Not From Asia Over Bering Strait Land-ice Bridge, New Research Suggests- July 17, 2008 New research by a geography professor and his students on the creation of Kankakee Sand Islands of Northwest Indiana is lending support to evidence that the first humans to settle the Americas came from Europe, a discovery that overturns decades of classroom lessons that nomadic tribes from Asia crossed a Bering Strait land-ice bridge.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080701193203.htm Europe's Ancestors: Cro-Magnon 28,000 Years Old Had DNA Like Modern Humans- July 16, 2008 Some 40,000 years ago, Cro-Magnons -- the first people who had a skeleton that looked anatomically modern -- entered Europe, coming from Africa. Geneticists now show that a Cro-Magnoid individual who lived in Southern Italy 28,000 years ago was a modern European, genetically as well as anatomically. They conclude that the Neandertal people, who lived in Europe for nearly 300,000 years, are not the ancestors of modern Europeans.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080715204741.htm |