Climate change could trigger an ancient El Niño-like pattern in the Indian Ocean that would create extreme weather such as floods, storms and droughts across the globe. El Niño is the name of a current recurring climate phenomenon across the tropical Pacific, which shifts back and forth irregularly every two to seven years, and triggers disruptions of … Read more
Raft of clay tablets and pots thought to be from ancient Middle East when seized at Heathrow are FAKES say the British Museum – and could have been on their way to con a wealthy collector ‘These consignments confirm the importance of vigilance on the part of our law enforcement agencies’ Pair of trunks filled … Read more
Remarkably well-preserved wreck of a 2,000-year-old Ancient Roman ‘sewn ship’ that was stitched together using ropes and wooden nails is unearthed in Croatia The vessel was unearthed next to an ancient pier in the waterfront of Poreč Experts are calling the ship Croatia’s greatest archaeological find of the century The vessel’s hull was essentially ‘sewn’ together … Read more
More than 7,000 years ago ancient Britons were among the first to star farming cows for their milk, a study of pottery fragments has revealed. Scientists from the University of York tracked the shift from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to early farming in prehistoric Europe over about 1,500 years. The York team examined the molecular remains of … Read more
Prehistoric Lego! Aerial images show that ancient creators of Stonehenge used holes and studs to slot slabs into each other The ancient slabs in Wiltshire were interlocked using holes and protruding studs The method was far more sophisticated to those used in stone circles at the time English Heritage, which looks after the 5,000-year-old site, … Read more
A new species from the prehistoric group of flying reptiles known as pterosaurs has been found in Morocco by British scientists. The new species, named Afrotapjara zouhrii, belongs to a group of pterosaurs called tapejarids from the Cretaceous period, between 145 million years and 66 million years ago. Tapejarids were small to medium-sized pterosaurs with … Read more
Ruinous hotels aren’t typically recommended – but an exception can definitely be made for this one for a post-lockdown escape. Behold the one-of-a-kind Museum Hotel in Antakya, Turkey, a lodge for wannabe Tomb Raiders that ‘floats’ above the ruins of over a dozen civilisations dating back to the third century BC, which were discovered in … Read more
Human ancestors who lived over three million years ago had an ape-like brain structure but human-like brain growth that showed prolonged periods of care. The findings are based on analysis of eight fossil skulls of Australopithecus afarensis – the species to which the famous early human ancestor ‘Lucy’ belongs. A. afarensis inhabited East Africa more … Read more
Diamond-encrusted rock samples that have been found on a Canadian island fill ‘a piece in the puzzle’ to reconstruct an ancient part of Earth’s continental crust. A fragment of the North Atlantic Craton (NAC) was found by geologists who were sifting through diamond exploration samples from the southern Baffin Island, Canada. The NAC is an … Read more
The location where NASA plans to land its rover on Mars could hold signs of ancient microbial life. Scientists are set to investigate the Jezero crater in the Mars 2020 mission, which was home to a lake 3.5 billion years ago and is littered with carbonates and hydrated silica. Carbonates located in the crater’s inner rim … Read more