Archaeology

Differences in the size and shape of tailbones offer a way to tell male and female fossils apart

The rise of senior citizens may have played a big role in the success of our species

A new out-of-this-world theory links mass extinctions with exotic astrophysics and galactic architecture

The decline and abandonment of the Mexican metropolis may have been hastened by infighting among different cultural and socioeconomic groups. Cynthia Graber reports

 

An analysis using ancient collagen protein could permit the study of fossils older than DNA allows

It's time for one of those classic `from the archives' type articles. This one was originally published in July 2008 at Tet Zoo ver 2. Apart from tiny editorial tweaks, it hasn't been updated.

Physical remains in Sri Lanka show that people lived in rainforests 20,000 years ago, at least 10,000 years earlier than previous evidence showed. Cynthia Graber reports

 

A fossil discovery of a joint-legged animal foreshadows the appearance of giant filter-feeding sharks and whales in more recent times

As longtime readers may have noticed, I have an abiding interest in Neandertals. To help me keep up with the latest scientific insights into these mysterious relatives of ours, I have a Google alert set for "Neandertal" (and the alternate spelling, "Neanderthal").

A new genetic analysis reveals a massive migration from the central Asian grasslands into Europe 4,500 years ago—implying that some languages followed. Christopher Intagliata reports

A 2.8-million-year mandible and a digital model of a key fossil paint a complicated picture of the genus Homo

It may have hidden in the ocean for millions of years, but life today poses numerous challenges for the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae), the "living fossil" fish that was famously rediscovered off the coast of South Africa in 1938.