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.Rock Art Marks Transformations In Traditional Peruvian Societies- August 7, 2008 Peru is one of the Latin American countries, like Argentina and Brazil, where rock art is thought to have developed throughout a period stretching from 10,000 BC to 1500 AD. The wealth and diversity of the series of pictorial representations made during this period are now beginning to be appreciated by archaeologists. Recent investigations have given insights into the daily lives of human communities who lived in the coastal and mountainous areas of Peru during that era.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080804111634.htm Duck-billed Dinosaurs Outgrew Predators To Survive- August 6, 2008 With long limbs and a soft body, the duck-billed hadrosaur had few defenses against predators such as tyrannosaurs. But new research on the bones of this plant-eating dinosaur suggests that it had at least one advantage: It grew to adulthood much faster than its predators, giving it superiority in size.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080805192720.htm Antarctic Fossils Paint Picture Of Much Warmer Continent- August 6, 2008 Scientists working in an ice-free region of Antarctica have discovered the last traces of tundra -- in the form of fossilized plants and insects -- on the interior of the southernmost continent before temperatures began a relentless drop millions of years ago.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080805124052.htm Genetic Evidence Used To Trace Ancient African Migration- August 5, 2008 Researchers peering at history's footprints on human DNA have found new evidence for how prehistoric people shared knowledge that advanced civilization.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080804190635.htm Schizophrenia: Costly By-product Of Human Brain Evolution- August 5, 2008 Metabolic changes responsible for the evolution of our unique cognitive abilities indicate that the brain may have been pushed to the limit of its capabilities. Research published today in BioMed Central's open access journal Genome Biology adds weight to the theory that schizophrenia is a costly by-product of human brain evolution.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080804222910.htm Little Teeth Suggest Big Jump In Primate Timeline- August 5, 2008 Tiny fossilized teeth excavated from an Indian open-pit coal mine could be the oldest Asian remains ever found of anthropoids, the primate lineage of today's monkeys, apes and humans.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080804190705.htm Tracking Down Abrupt Climate Changes: Rapid Natural Cooling Occurred 12,700 Years Ago- August 4, 2008 Researchers have shown, for the first time, that an extremely fast climate change occurred in Western Europe. This took place long before human-made changes in the atmosphere, and is causatively associated with a sudden change in the wind systems.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080801152137.htm Cold And Ice, Not Heat, Episodically Gripped Tropical Regions 300 Million Years Ago- August 1, 2008 Geoscientists have long presumed that, like today, the tropics remained warm throughout Earth's last major glaciation 300 million years ago. New evidence, however, indicates that cold temperatures in fact episodically gripped these equatorial latitudes at that time.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080731140227.htm Evolution Of Skull And Mandible Shape In Cats- August 1, 2008 In a new study published in the online-open access journal PLoS ONE, Per Christiansen at the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, reports the finding that the evolution of skull and mandible shape in sabercats and modern cats were governed by different selective forces, and the two groups evolved very different adaptations to killing.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080729234258.htm |