Hit parade of “living fossils”: these 14 species have not changed in millions or even hundreds of millions of years
A living fossil is a species that has not changed significantly over millions of years and closely resembles its ancestors found in the fossil record. Charles Darwin coined the term “living fossil” in 1859 to describe living species that still looked like their ancestors millions of years ago and were often the last surviving lineage. Anatomically, these species tend to appear unchanged, although genetically, the species are constantly evolving. Plate tectonic activity has had a profound effect on the rate of evolution of coelacanths throughout their 400-million-year history.
The oldest human remains, 850 thousand years old, have been found
Archaeologists in Spain have made an unexpected discovery. The oldest human remains have been found in the Gran Dolina mountain range. Archaeologists from Spain have discovered the bones of some of the oldest archaic humans in Europe, who lived in the Sierra de Atapuerca mountain range, Gran Dolina, 850 thousand years ago, according to a press release from the Catalan University of Human Paleoecology and Social Revolution.
Our ancestors’ numbers dwindled to 1,280 breeding individuals 930,000 years ago
Humanity owes its existence to just 1,280 people who nearly died out, study finds. A new method for estimating ancient populations has revealed a potential way in which humanity could have nearly disappeared. Researchers believe our ancestors dwindled to just 1,280 breeding individuals during the Pleistocene.