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.
New archaeological discoveries have shown that humans are capable of surviving in the most extreme conditions
The fossilized bones of a giant, extinct armored mammal provide the latest clue about when humans arrived in South America. At the time, in the late Pleistocene, numerous large animals inhabited the harsh, cold landscape, including giant sloths, mastodons, and saber-toothed cats. Humans were well-adapted to drought and resource scarcity, able to move along dry riverbeds in search of pools and the prey that grazed around them. The authors call this a “blue highway” that operated during the harshest periods.
The Gunung Padang archaeological site in western Java was built by a civilization 25,000 years ago
Researchers from Indonesia claim that the archaeological site of Gunung Padang in western Java was built by a powerful civilization 25,000 years ago. The scientific community is arguing fiercely about the hypothesis because of a fundamental error. The authors of the sensational article insist that they are right. And the publisher’s withdrawal of the research results is called censorship that contradicts the principles of science.