Archaeologists date world's oldest timber constructions by (author unknown)

A research team has succeeded in precisely dating four water wells built by the first Central European agricultural civilization with the help of dendrochronology or growth ring dating. The wells were excavated at settlements in the Greater Leipzig region and are the oldest known timber constructions in the world. They were built by the Linear Pottery culture, which existed from roughly 5600 to 4900 BC.



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Fighting shaped human hands by (author unknown)

We're all used to the idea that humans evolved their distinctive hand proportions for enhanced dexterity, but now researchers have come up with an alternative theory: that human hands evolved for combat. The duo provide evidence that the long thumb that wraps across the fingers in a fist packs the curled digits tightly together to make a compact club for use in combat.



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Is tomorrow the end? by (author unknown)

End-of-the-world predictions are common in human history, but believers in the Mayan Doomsday claim don’t understand the Mayan calendar system, an anthropologist says.



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Maya expert weighs in on Dec. 21 apocalypse theories by (author unknown)

Rusty Barrett, an expert on Mayan culture, weighed in on how the Mayan calendar works, discussed his research with the Mayan population, and shared his observations of the Maya's reactions to the idea that the world will end on Dec. 21, 2012.



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Our hands evolved for punching, not just dexterity by (author unknown)

Men whacked punching bags for a new study that suggests human hands evolved not only for the manual dexterity needed to use tools, play a violin or paint a work of art, but so men could make fists and fight.



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Crisis in Syria has Mesopotamian precedent, experts say by (author unknown)

New research has revealed intriguing parallels between modern day and Bronze-Age Syria as the Mesopotamian region underwent urban decline, government collapse, and drought.



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Scientists 'surprised' to discover very early ancestors survived on tropical plants, new study suggests by (author unknown)

Between three million and 3.5 million years ago, the diet of our very early ancestors in central Africa is likely to have consisted mainly of tropical grasses and sedges, new research suggests.



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Tracing humanity's African ancestry may mean rewriting 'out of Africa' dates by (author unknown)

New research may lead to a rethinking of how, when and from where our ancestors left Africa. Explorations in the Iringa region of southern Tanzania yielded fossils and other evidence that records the beginnings of our own species, Homo sapiens. New research may be key to answering questions about early human occupation and the migration out of Africa about 60,000 to 50,000 years ago, which led to modern humans colonizing the globe.



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Chemical analysis reveals first cheese-making in Northern Europe in the 6th millennium BC by (author unknown)

Archeologists have the first unequivocal evidence that humans in prehistoric Northern Europe made cheese more than 7,000 years ago.



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Ancient Australian fossils were on land, not at sea, geologist proposes by (author unknown)

Ancient multicellular fossils long thought to be ancestors of early marine life are remnants of land-dwelling lichen or other microbial colonies, says a University of Oregon scientist who has been studying fossil soils of South Australia.



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Algal ancestor is key to how deadly pathogens proliferate, researchers find by (author unknown)

Long ago, when life on our planet was in its infancy, a group of small single-celled algae floating in the vast prehistoric ocean swam freely by beating whip-like tails, called flagella. The organisms are called Apicomplexa, but are better known as the parasites that cause malaria and toxoplasmosis. Now, researchers have discovered how an important structure inside these parasitic cells, which evolved from the algal ancestor millions of years ago, allows the cells to replicate and spread inside their hosts. Their research may lead to new therapies to halt these deadly pathogens before they cause disease.



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Roman settlement and possible prehistoric site uncovered in northern Italy by (author unknown)

Using archaeological expertise and modern technology, archeologists recently discovered a Roman settlement and possible prehistoric site in northern Italy.



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From fish to man: Research reveals how fins became legs by (author unknown)

Vertebrates' transition to living on land, instead of only in water, represented a major event in the history of life. Now, researchers provide new evidence that the development of hands and feet occurred through the gain of new DNA elements that activate particular genes.



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Tracking gene flow in marine plant evolution by (author unknown)

A new method that could give a deeper insight into evolutionary biology. Biologists identified the segregation of genes that a marine plant underwent during its evolution. They found that the exchange of genes, or gene flow, between populations of a marine plant went westward from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.



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Monkey business: What howler monkeys can tell us about the role of interbreeding in human evolution by (author unknown)

Did different species of early humans interbreed and produce offspring of mixed ancestry? Recent genetic studies suggest that Neanderthals may have bred with anatomically modern humans tens of thousands of years ago in the Middle East, contributing to the modern human gene pool. But the findings are not universally accepted, and the fossil record has not helped to clarify the role of interbreeding, which is also known as hybridization. Now a study of interbreeding between two species of modern-day howler monkeys in Mexico is shedding light on why it's so difficult to confirm instances of hybridization among primates -- including early humans -- by relying on fossil remains.



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European Romani exodus began 1,500 years ago, DNA evidence shows by (author unknown)

Despite their modern-day diversity of language, lifestyle, and religion, Europe's widespread Romani population shares a common, if complex, past. It all began in northwestern India about 1,500 years ago, according to a new study that offers the first genome-wide perspective on Romani origins and demographic history.



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Reading history through genetics by (author unknown)

An engineering study demonstrates a new approach used to analyze genetic data to learn more about the history of populations. The authors, the first to develop a method that can describe in detail events in recent history, focused on two populations, the Ashkenazi Jews and the Masai people of Kenya.



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Africa's Homo sapiens were the first techies by (author unknown)

The search for the origin of modern human behavior and technological advancement among our ancestors in southern Africa some 70,000 years ago has taken a step closer to firmly establishing Africa, and especially South Africa, as the primary center for the early development of human behavior.



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National Geographic unveils new phase of genographic project by (author unknown)

The National Geographic Society has announced the next phase of its Genographic Project -- the multiyear global research initiative that uses DNA to map the history of human migration. Building on seven years of global data collection, Genographic shines new light on humanity's collective past, yielding tantalizing clues about humankind's journey across the planet over the past 60,000 years.



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Genome of the Black Death reveals evidence for an Antique Bubonic Plague pandemic by (author unknown)

Researchers have compared medieval and modern plague pathogens. In a comparison of more than 300 contemporary strains of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes bubonic plague, with ancient bacterial DNA isolated from victims of the Black Death (1347 -- 1351), a team led by researchers at University of Tuebingen obtained evidence suggestive of a bubonic plague outbreak in the late antique period (8th to 10th centuries AD). The study raises strong suspicions that the plague of Justinian, a massive pandemic that is thought to be in part responsible for the collapse of the East Roman Empire, may have been caused by the same bacterium implicated in the Black Death.



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