Earliest modern human genomes constrain timing of Neanderthal admixture
Nature, Published online: 12 December 2024; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08420-x Earliest modern human genomes constrain timing of Neanderthal admixture
Excavations uncover evidence for the emergence and rejection of the earliest state institutions in Iraq
Aerial view of the 2023 exposure in Area I at Shakhi Kora. Credit: Antiquityhttps://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2024.189 Excavations at a 4th millennium BCE settlement in Iraqi Kurdistan have revealed new clues about the origins of the world’s earliest governing institutions, suggesting they emerged partly from their ability to provide large-scale meals, potentially as payment for labor. However, the […]
James Webb Space Telescope smashes its own record to find the earliest galaxies that ever existed
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered a handful of possible galaxies that could be among the earliest to ever exist. Located 13.6 billion light-years away and just 200 million years after the Big Bangthe five galaxy candidates are the earliest ever detected, and likely some of the first to have formed in the […]
Earliest fish-trapping facility in Central America discovered in Maya lowlands
Researchers doing reconnaissance in the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary CTWS where they discovered evidence of a large-scale pre-Columbian fish-trapping facility. Credit: Belize River East Archaeology (BREA) Project An archaeologist from the University of New Hampshire and her team have collected data which indicates the presence of a large-scale pre-Columbian fish-trapping facility. Discovered in the Crooked […]
Origins of world’s earliest writing point to symbols on ‘seals’ used in Mesopotamian trade
The world’s oldest known system of writing was influenced by symbols used for trade — engravings found on cylinders used in the exchange of farming produce and textiles, a new study suggests. The finding reinforces an idea proposed in earlier research: that cuneiform script — which was developed in early Mesopotamia around 3100 B.C. and […]
Half-a-billion-year-old ‘marine Roomba’ is earliest known asymmetrical animal
The earliest known animal to show evidence of an asymmetrical body lived over half a billion years ago in what is now the Australian outback, a new study reports. The 555 million-year-old creature, dubbed Quaestio simpsonorum in a study published Sept. 3 in the journal Evolution and Developmentwas able to move around on the ocean […]