Category: History

nytimes.com

Amateur archaeologists have discovered in India a set of approximately 1200 sculptures carved on rocks dating from the Stone Age.
The etched figures represent human beings, tigers, elephants, rhinoceroses, deers, hippopotamuses, birds, turtles, sharks, and other abstract forms.
According to the estimate of the archaeologists, the figures are between 10,000 and 40,000 years old, approximately.
The scenes carved on the rocks show typical human activities dedicated to hunting animals and collecting wild plants and fruits.

Bulleted by Dawid Andrzejewski
on May 9, 2019

Paleontologist Javier Luque discovered a new type of animal - Callichimaera perplexa - which was a weird, quarter-size crab with crazy body parts.
It lived around 90-95 million years ago and had a shrimp mouth, frog crab claws, a lobster shell, paddle-like appendages of a sea scorpion, and soccer-ball sized eyes.
It also combined baby and adult parts - grown individuals had bent claws, leg-like mouth parts, an exposed tail, and a long body, all seen in crab larvae.
This discovery shows that crabs have lost and reevolved their body plans many times throughout history.

Bulleted by Dawid Andrzejewski
on April 27, 2019

In a great example of dark data (scientific finds in museums that have not been studied), a new species of massive carnivore has been identified.
The Simbakubwa Kutokaafrika has been waiting to be identified for 40 years, and it’s somewhat of a cross between a polar bear and a lion.
It spread across the world during the Miocene with other hyaenodonts - an extinct lineage of carnivores.
The biggest impact of this finding is that it will help paleontologists define the timeline for these animals more precisely.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on April 23, 2019

inverse.com

Scientists have found the skeleton of a four-legged whale that lived along the coast of Peru 42.6 million years ago - the oldest found yet in the Americas.
They named it Peregocetus pacificus (“the traveling whale that reached the Pacific”).
It’s the first indisputable record of a four-legged whale for the whole Pacific Ocean, and the most complete skeleton found outside the Middle East.
This specimen proves that four-legged whales were able to cross the South Atlantic Ocean and reach the Pacific Ocean while retaining functional, weight-bearing limbs.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on April 7, 2019

New paper uncovers an unprecedented archeological site connected to a comet strike that happened 66 million years ago off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
It is the first mass grave of large organisms ever found associated with the K-T boundary (the end of the Cretaceous Period, when 75% of life on Earth was eliminated and dinosaurs went extinct).
It’s a vast collection of various species at different stages of life, all of which died at the same time.
This site might lead to fascinating new discoveries about our past.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on April 3, 2019

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