Tag Archives: Origins

Science news this week: Astronomers close in on comet 3I/ATLAS’s origins, a strange gravity anomaly discovered off Africa and AI designs brand-new viruses

Science news this week: Astronomers close in on comet 3I/ATLAS’s origins, a strange gravity anomaly discovered off Africa and AI designs brand-new viruses

This week’s science news was bursting with mind-blowing astronomical observations, led by new discoveries about the origins of the comet 3I/ATLAS. The comet, an interstellar interloper from far beyond our solar system, was first spotted in late June. Now, scientists are finally closing in on its age and where it came from. They discovered it likely originated in the far …

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A 3,000-Year-Old Workshop May Have Revealed The Origins of The Iron Age : ScienceAlert

A 3,000-Year-Old Workshop May Have Revealed The Origins of The Iron Age : ScienceAlert

The Iron Age was one of the most significant epochs in human history, and researchers may have uncovered the secrets of how we left the Bronze Age behind – via a 3,000-year-old smelting workshop called Kvemo Bolnisi, in southern Georgia. This is a site that’s been pored over before, but anthropological archaeologists Nathaniel Erb-Satullo and Bobbi Klymchuk, from Cranfield University …

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Your Million-Year-Old Cousin Just Resurfaced in China — And It’s Upending the Story of Human Origins

Your Million-Year-Old Cousin Just Resurfaced in China — And It’s Upending the Story of Human Origins

A fossilized skull unearthed in central China over 30 years ago has upended long-standing theories about early human evolution, according to a peer-reviewed study published in Science on September 25. The cranium, dubbed Yunxian 2, was first discovered in 1990 in Hubei province, but its distorted condition kept scientists from fully analyzing it—until now. Thanks to advanced 3D reconstruction techniques, …

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Skull analysis illuminates the origins of ‘Dragon Man’ and the Denisovans

Skull analysis illuminates the origins of ‘Dragon Man’ and the Denisovans

A badly crushed cranium unearthed decades ago from a riverbank in central China that once defied classification is now shaking up the human family tree, according to a new analysis. Scientists digitally reconstructed the squashed skull, thought to be 1 million years old, and its features suggest that the fossil belonged to the same lineage as a striking specimen called …

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From Afar to Olduvai – asteroid Donaldjohanson’s landmarks get names tied to human origins

From Afar to Olduvai – asteroid Donaldjohanson’s landmarks get names tied to human origins

The geological features of an oddly shaped asteroid visited by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft now have official names, and like the mission’s moniker, they reflect a focus on early human relatives. Lucy flew by the asteroid, dubbed 52246 Donaldjohanson, on April 20, and the names of the spacecraft and asteroid were far from coincidental. The asteroid is named after Donald Johanson, …

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Skull analysis illuminates the origins of ‘Dragon Man’ and the Denisovans

Skull analysis illuminates the origins of ‘Dragon Man’ and the Denisovans

A badly crushed cranium unearthed decades ago from a riverbank in central China that once defied classification is now shaking up the human family tree, according to a new analysis. Scientists digitally reconstructed the squashed skull, thought to be 1 million years old, and its features suggest that the fossil belonged to the same lineage as a striking specimen called …

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Study of 1m-year-old skull points to earlier origins of modern humans | Anthropology

Study of 1m-year-old skull points to earlier origins of modern humans | Anthropology

A million-year-old human skull suggests that the origins of modern humans may reach back far deeper in time than previously thought and raises the possibility that Homo sapiens first emerged outside of Africa. Leading scientists reached this conclusion after reanalysis of a skull known as Yunxian 2 discovered in China and previously classified as belonging to a member of the …

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