Punches from the sun are overpowering skywatchers these days. Yet another series of solar flares (opens in new tab) series shimmied out from the sun on Friday (Aug. 26) after a dazzling show of green-hued auroras (opens in new tab) crashed through the atmosphere just days ago. “Sunspot AR3089 is crackling with a series of […]
The massive, sucker-covered carcass of a giant squid washed onto the rocky shore of Scarborough Beach in Cape Town, South Africa, Tuesday (Aug. 16). The beast, which measured nearly 14 feet (4.3 meters) long, was the second giant squid to crop up on a beach in the region this year, according to the South African […]
A likely asteroid impact crater from the latter days of the dinosaurs has been discovered off the coast of West Africa, raising questions about whether the asteroid that wiped out the dinos may have had a smaller sibling that struck around the same time. The crater, hidden under about 3,000 feet (900 meters) of water […]
A new theory suggests that Homo erectus was able to create seagoing vessels – and must have used language to sail successfully They had bodies similar to modern humans, could make tools, and were possibly the first to cook. Now one expert is arguing that Homo erectus might have been a mariner – complete with sailing lingo. Homo erectus first […]
New excavations of a cave site in western Sumatra called Lida Ajer indicate modern humans reached Southeast Asia between 73,000 to 63,000 years ago — up to 20,000 years earlier than archaeologists previously thought. The findings, published in the journal Nature, also suggest humans could have potentially made the crossing to Australia even earlier than the accepted 60,000 […]
Homo erectus, a hominin species that originated in equatorial Africa or the Caucasus region of Eurasia, arrived on the island of Java in Indonesia around 1.3 million years ago — 300,000 years later than previously thought, according to an analysis of zircon grains in tuffs from the archaeological site of Sangiran. The World Heritage archaeological site […]
Researchers have discovered the world’s oldest figurative tattoos on two 5,000-year-old mummies from Egypt. The drawings consist of a wild bull and a Berber sheep on the upper arm of a male mummy, and S-shaped motifs on the upper arm and shoulder of a female. The discovery pushes evidence for the practice in Africa back […]
