Seeing the wood for the trees: How archaeologists use hazelnuts to reconstruct ancient woodlands
If we could stand in a landscape that our Mesolithic ancestors called home, what would we see around us? Scientists have devised a method of analyzing preserved hazelnut shells to tell us whether the microhabitats around archaeological sites were hea.....»»
Cicada-palooza! Billions of bugs to blanket America
They're loud. They're sexually aroused. And for one special, cacophonous month up to a trillion of them will engulf suburbs and woodlands across America......»»
Did Vesuvius bury the home of the first Roman emperor?
A group of archaeologists, led by researchers from the University of Tokyo, announce the discovery of a part of a Roman villa built before the middle of the first century. This villa, near the town of Nola in southwestern Italy's Campania region, was.....»»
New rock art discoveries in Eastern Sudan tell a tale of ancient cattle, the "green Sahara" and climate catastrophe
The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new research has found rock art over 4,000 years old that depicts cattle......»»
Deciphered Herculaneum papyrus reveals precise burial place of Plato
Various imaging methods comprised a kind of "bionic eye" to examine charred scroll. Enlarge / Imaging setup for a charred ancient papyrus recovered from the ruins of Herculaneum; 30 percent of the text has now been deciphered. (c.....»»
Gender-nonconforming ancient Romans found refuge in community dedicated to goddess Cybele
A Vatican declaration, the "Infinite Dignity," has brought renewed attention to how religions define and interpret gender and gender roles......»»
Archaeologists unearth top half of statue of Ramesses II
A team co-led by a CU Boulder classics researcher has unearthed the upper portion of a huge, ancient pharaonic statue whose lower half was discovered in 1930; Ramesses II was immortalized in Percy Bysshe Shelly's "Ozymandias.".....»»
Ancient giant tortoise fossils found in Colombian Andes
Paleontologists have discovered giant tortoise fossils in Colombia dating back some 57 million years, the university leading the excavation said, with the findings key to understanding South America's prehistoric eras......»»
Researcher finds that wood frogs evolved rapidly in response to road salts
When we think of evolution, we think of a process that happens over hundreds or thousands of years. In research published in Ecology and Evolution a team led by Rick Relyea, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences and David M. Darrin Senior Endowed.....»»
Evolutionary biologists show that the color variants of female cuckoos are based on ancient mutations
Every cuckoo is an adopted child—raised by foster parents, into whose nest the cuckoo mother smuggled her egg. The cuckoo mother is aided in this subterfuge by her resemblance to a bird of prey. There are two variants of female cuckoos: a gray morp.....»»
Scientists use ancient DNA, historical context to unravel kinship, social practices of Avar society
A multidisciplinary research team led by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has combined ancient DNA data with a clear archaeological, anthropological and historical context to reconstruct the social dynamics of Avar.....»»
This ancient snake in India might have been longer than a school bus and weighed a ton
A ancient giant snake in India might have been longer than a school bus and weighed a ton, researchers reported Thursday......»»
"Forgotten city:" the identification of Dura-Europos" neglected sister site in Syria
The Dura-Europos site in modern-day Syria is famous for its exceptional state of preservation. Like Pompeii, this ancient city has yielded many great discoveries, and serves as a window into the world of the ancient Hellenistic, Parthian, and Roman p.....»»
Mycoheterotrophic plants as a key to the "Wood Wide Web"
Bayreuth researchers shed light on the natural evidence for the occurrence and function of networks of fungi and plants—so-called mycorrhizal networks. Through this "Wood Wide Web," plants can exchange resources and even information with each other.....»»
Dramatic burning of royal remains reveals Maya regime change
New archaeological investigations in Guatemala reveal that ancient Maya peoples did not just passively watch their dynastic systems collapse at the end of the Classic period. They actively reworked their political systems to create new governments......»»
First evidence of ancient human occupation found in giant lava tube cave in Saudi Arabia
If you look from above, you can see thousands of stone structures dotting the landscape of the Arabian peninsula. On the ground, you can find a bounty of stone tools and ancient fireplaces scattered along the edges of ancient lakes, as well as rock a.....»»
Discovery of new ancient giant snake in India
A new ancient species of snake dubbed Vasuki Indicus, which lived around 47 million years ago in the state of Gujarat in India, may have been one of the largest snakes to have ever lived, suggests new research published in Scientific Reports. The new.....»»
OpenAI winds down AI image generator that blew minds and forged friendships in 2022
How a group of friends found themselves at the center of a fierce debate about the future of art. Enlarge / An AI-generated image from DALL-E 2 created with the prompt "A painting by Grant Wood of an astronaut couple, american go.....»»
US Infrastructure Is Broken. Here’s an $830 Million Plan to Fix It
WIRED spoke with US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg about recent grants to fix ancient roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure before it’s too late......»»
Reproductive success improves after a single generation in the wild for descendants of some hatchery Chinook salmon
Researchers who created "family trees" for nearly 10,000 fish have found that first-generation, wild-born descendants of hatchery-origin Chinook salmon in an Oregon river show improved fitness......»»
From tape measures to space lasers: Quantifying biomass of the world"s tallest forests
In this era of accelerating climate crisis, accounting for all aspects of Earth's carbon cycle is a crucial task. The magnitude of atmospheric carbon burden means trees and forests are limited but important instruments among a suite of mitigation opt.....»»