News Desk

Comet 3I/ATLAS continues to make astonishing headlines, thanks to new findings from astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). This new research reveals that 3I/ATLAS is packed with an unusually large amount of the organic molecule methanol—more than almost all known comets in our own solar system. The findings are posted on the arXiv preprint server.

When the Spanish first reached the Andes, they found something surprising: Many of the locals had long, pointy heads. They discovered that the Collagua, an indigenous group in Peru that was conquered by the Inca, had a practice of shaping the head starting in infancy, before the skull bones fused and soft spots disappeared.

A new study, led by paleoanthropologist Amélie Beaudet at the Université de Poitiers in France, has now digitally pieced together Little Foot’s face for the first time. The research was published in the journal Comptes Rendus Palevol.

Thousands of years ago, European communities used a variety of plant and animal products to create elaborate meals, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS One by Lara González Carretero of the University of York, U.K. and colleagues.

A Stone Age woman buried with male-associated artifacts in what is now Hungary is revealing that her society embraced complex identities and flexible gender roles 7,000 years ago, a new study finds. In the study was published Feb. 16 in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology.

A recent study published in Communications Biology suggests that a powerful psychedelic drug can induce a unique brain state where awake and moving animals exhibit brain waves typically associated with deep sleep. This unusual blend of sleeping and waking characteristics provides evidence that psychedelics may temporarily reorganize brain activity in ways that promote learning and emotional recovery.

Unretouched triangular microlithic projectile points have been identified from their impact traces in the oldest occupation layers of the Obi-Rakhmat site in Uzbekistan, dating to 80,000 years ago…This new study, published in PLOS One journal, provides a strong argument that could rewrite history on Homo sapiens’ first settlement in Europe.

A new paper published in Nature (11th Feb) has highlighted some of the more complex interactions between ancient populations that took place in north-west Europe. The research untangles the origins of prehistoric populations across Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as identifying the source population for a migration into Britain during the late Neolithic that seems to have led to a 90% replacement of Britain’s Neolithic farmers.

A new method of studying the contents of soil samples has revealed Stone Age people in Sweden were buried in decorated fur-and-feather clothing. In the study, published Feb. 20 in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, Kirkinen and colleagues detailed the evidence of perishable materials that they found in 35 burials at Skateholm…

Six planets are linking up in the sky at the end of February, and most will be visible to the naked eye. It’s what’s known as a planetary parade, which happens when multiple planets appear to line up in the sky at once.

According to new research published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, moderate doses of the compound are linked to reduced anxiety, while higher doses tend to produce antidepressant-like effects and increase signs of new neural connections. These findings help clarify how different levels of brain receptor engagement could eventually guide more precise treatments for human psychiatric conditions.

Could a Moroccan cave hold a crucial piece of the puzzle of human origins? Hominin fossils dating back 773,000 years discovered in the country are bringing new evidence to the debate about the last common ancestor of present-day humans (Homo sapiens), Neanderthals and Denisovans. A recent study published in Nature explains the significance of the discovery.

A preference for pairings between male Neanderthals and female Homo sapiens may answer the question of why there are “Neanderthal deserts” in human chromosomes. The study was published Thursday (Feb. 26) in the journal Science.

For years, scientists thought Ötzi the Iceman’s maternal line had vanished. New genetic findings reveal it still survives today.

Over 40,000 years ago, our early ancestors were already carving signs into tools and sculptures. According to a new analysis…these sign sequences have the same level of complexity and information density as the earliest proto-cuneiform script, which emerged tens of thousands of years later, around 3,000 B.C.E. Their findings, which have been published in the journal PNAS, were clear—and surprised even the researchers.

In the journal Antiquity, Dr. Shokouh Khosravi published preliminary findings of the largest known corpus of prehistoric seal impressions in the entire ancient world. The corpus, made up of over 7,000 seal impressions, more than 200 clay figurines, clay tokens, and two cylinder seals, dates back to 5,000 years ago…