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Neandertal Gene Study Reveals Early Split With Humans

A new genetic study bolsters theories of an early human-Neandertal split and is helping scientists pinpoint what makes humans unique. Controversy has long swirled in the scientific community over how closely the hairy Eurasian hunters resembled modern humans, with some researchers even claiming Neandertals (often spelled Neanderthals) were actually members of our own species, Homo sapiens ... National Geographic News

Bending the Branches

A new study of human fossils asks, what if we are the odd ones?

Most people think of humans as the top, the apex of the family tree. But new research suggests this quintessentially human infatuation with ourselves may have impaired our judgment. Erik Trinkaus, a paleontologist and Neandertal expert at Washington University in St. Louis, believes that modern human features are unusual enough, compared with ancestral members of the genus Homo, to make us a side branch of the family tree ... Archaeology

Ancient footprints found in Mexico valley

A trail of 13 fossilized footprints running through a valley in a desert in northern Mexico could be among the oldest in the Americas, Mexican archeologists said.

The footprints were made by hunter gatherers who are believed to have lived thousands of years ago in the Coahuila valley of Cuatro Cienegas, 190 miles (306 kms) south of Eagle Pass, Texas, said archaeologist Yuri de la Rosa Gutierrez of Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History ... Yahoo!News

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Earth's wobbly orbit blamed for mass mammal extinctions

Scientists have named a prime suspect in the mysterious case of the missing mammals. The reason history is littered with suspiciously regular extinctions is all down to the Earth's wobbly orbit, according to research published today.

Apart from mass extinctions caused by asteroids thumping into the planet and other cataclysmic natural events, records reveal that mammal species die out anyway, usually 2.5m years after they first emerge ... Guardian Unlimited | Science

Archaeological treasures a click away on Google Earth

After 25 years of gritty field work, UNC Chapel Hill archaeologist Scott Madry has dug up a new way to hunt for ancient ruins -- without leaving home.

Last year, Madry read how an Italian man accidentally discovered the outline of an ancient Roman villa while looking at his house on Google Earth.

Madry explores how a Celtic people called the Aedui lived in France for about three centuries starting about 300 B.C.

Madry got out his laptop, fired up Google Earth and looked over lands in Burgundy, near his research area. Immediately, he spotted features that, to his trained eye, resembled outlines of Iron Age, Bronze Age, ancient Roman and medieval residences, forts, roads and monuments ... Charlotte Observer

Compelling evidence demonstrates that 'Hobbit' fossil does not represent a new species of hominid

What may well turn out to be the definitive work in a debate that has been raging in palaeoanthropology for two years will be published in the November 2006 issue of Anatomical Record.

The new research comprehensively and convincingly makes the case that the small skull discovered in Flores, Indonesia, in 2003 does not represent a new species of hominid, as was claimed in a study published in Nature in 2004. Instead, the skull is most likely that of a small-bodied modern human who suffered from a genetic condition known as microcephaly, which is characterized by a small head ... EurekAlert!

Piltdown's lessons for modern science

A new book reveals how recent research has uncovered a goldmine of information about the history of human habitation in Britain ... BBC NEWS | Science/Nature

Viking ship found in Larvik, Norway

Archaeologists found the remains of a ship from the Viking Age on Tuesday, in a burial mound on a farm outside the coastal city of Larvik. 

The discovery was made during archaeological examinations of the Nordheim Farm, which is near the Hedrum Church in Larvik. The examinations were ordered in connection with the pending expansion of the cemetery around Hedrum Church, which is located a few hours' drive south of Oslo.

Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported that archaeologists also found indications that another ship is buried in the same area ... Aftenposten.no

Human species 'may split in two'

Humanity may split into two sub-species in 100,000 years' time as predicted by HG Wells, an expert has said.

Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge ... BBC NEWS

Ancient Human Footprints Uncovered in Australia

About 20,000 years ago, humans trekked along the margins of a shallow lake in Australia, leaving behind records of their passage in the soft, wet sand.

In 2003, an aboriginal woman who is likely a descendant of those early Australians stumbled across dozens of timeworn footprints in the same area. Excavations of the site have since uncovered hundreds more ... LiveScience.com