A major collision 4.5 billion years ago with the protoplanet Theia formed the Earth-Moon system and several additional moons
Most scientists agree that a major collision 4.5 billion years ago with the protoplanet Theia formed the Earth-Moon system. A new study from the University of Nevada argues that the chaos of that collision in the early days of the Earth-Moon system may have created polar cislunar “moons.”
Moon standstill ends early 2025, experts explore new theory on Moon’s influence on Stonehenge design
Experts at English Heritage are investigating a new theory about how the Moon may have influenced the design of Stonehenge. A major lunar standstill occurs about every 19 years, with the next one due in 2024. This has prompted experts in England to investigate whether the phenomenon could have something to do with the design of Stonehenge. The stones at Stonehenge are varied in composition and come from a number of potential sources.
Natural selection in human populations continues today, and scientists are studying the prospects for its influence on human genes
Scientists have discovered that natural selection is happening right now among humans high in the mountains of Nepal. The physiological traits that help Tibetan women survive at high altitude are being selected for within the population, meaning they could become more common. The people of Papua New Guinea, who have been genetically isolated for millennia, carry unique genes that help them fight off infections, and some of these genes come from our extinct human cousins, the Denisovans. Hundreds of human genes have been affected by natural selection over the past 3,000 years.
Latest News on Neanderthals – Interbreeding with Homo sapiens and Isolation
A complex picture is emerging of how the Neanderthals died out, and what role modern humans played in their demise. About 37,000 years ago, Neanderthals were still living in small groups in what is now southern Spain. They may have gone about their daily business, making stone tools, eating birds and mushrooms, carving symbols into rocks, and creating feather and shell jewelry. They probably never realized that they were among the last of their kind.
New facts in the history of Ancient Egypt have been discovered
It would seem that Egypt has been dug up and down, but archaeologists and scientists are finding new facts to study. For example, mysterious plasma bubbles have appeared above the pyramids; China has recorded these strange atmospheric phenomena using modern radar. Archaeologists have discovered a 3,000-year-old fort in the desert, which contains evidence of the pharaoh’s stay. The ancient Egyptians used so much copper that they polluted the harbor near the pyramids.
Top Archaeological Novelties Found Underwater in 2024
Surprisingly, historical landmarks can survive in water. A 2,000-year-old temple from the “Indiana Jones civilization” has been found submerged off the coast of Italy. An ancient sunken bridge in Spain shows that people inhabited the Mediterranean island nearly 6,000 years ago. A torrential downpour hit an excavation site and uncovered a 233-million-year-old dinosaur. Archaeologists have discovered underwater images of several New and Late Kingdom pharaohs in the southern Egyptian province of Aswan. Archaeologists have found a centuries-old statue of a Greek god at the bottom of a Roman sewer.
Child sacrifices were practiced in Peru about 1,000 years ago, and archaeologists have found more than 500 bodies in the last five years
In the coastal desert north of Lima, Peru, archaeologists have uncovered the skeletal remains of 227 children, apparently killed and buried hundreds of years ago in a massive ritual sacrifice. The find represents the largest child burial on Earth, according to researchers who have been excavating the site for more than a year, and the bodies discovered so far may be just the tip of the proverbial blade. “No matter where you dig, there’s another one,” said the site’s lead archaeologist.
The Vikings traded, hunted with the Arctic inhabitants and fought with the Indians
After establishing settlements in Iceland and Greenland in the ninth and tenth centuries A.D., the Vikings reached what is now Newfoundland, Canada, around A.D. 1000. In the 13th century, the Inuit and Thule Norse hunted walruses in the high Arctic, according to a new study. Medieval walrus ivory may indicate trade between the Norse and Native Americans hundreds of years before Columbus, the study found.
Traces that can change history
Archaeologists have found 115,000-year-old human footprints where they shouldn’t be. Fossilized footprints in Saudi Arabia show evidence of human movement on the cusp of the next ice age. Study of preserved tracks in New Mexico continues to shed light on the first human movements across North America.
Scientists from the Far East and Siberia have extracted Paleolithic viruses from melting permafrost
Scientists are discovering and resurrecting ancient viruses trapped in permafrost and frozen remains. Trapped in frigid Arctic soils and riverbeds, the world is teeming with ancient microbes. Bacteria and viruses that existed thousands of years ago are frozen in time within prehistoric layers of permafrost. Rising temperatures could cause much of the ice to melt, freeing these microbes from their icy prisons. The viruses found are harmless, but other microbes, as yet unknown, could be released and infect humans or other animals.