Fossilised circles in the sand on South Africa’s coast may be artwork by our early ancestors: If you have walked on a dune surface after windy conditions have settled, you may have been privileged to recognise one of Nature’s wonders: scratch circles. These are structures formed when the end of a tethered object is passively …
How our ancestors viewed the sky: new film explores both indigenous and modern cosmology: Something remarkable is happening in a remote part of South Africa’s Northern Cape province, in a semi-desert area called the Karoo. In the past 15 years 64 radio receiving dishes have appeared on the landscape. These constitute the MeerKAT telescope, a …
Drawing in the sand at the beach? Our ancestors did the same 140,000 years ago: This ammoglyph consists of a circular groove, a central depression and two possible knee impressions. Charles Helm The urge to draw images in sand, or create sand sculptures, seems to be irresistible, as a walk on many a modern beach …
Did our mammal ancestors live alongside dinosaurs? New research hopes to end long-running debate: david.costa.art/Shutterstock If you were asked to think of a mammal, chances are high you would think of a placental mammal – horses, dogs, cats, humans, even bats and rats all fall into that category. It includes some 6,000 species who live …
Cats in the middle ages: what medieval manuscripts teach us about our ancestors’ pets: Cat king, Germany, circa 1450. Scheibler’sches Wappenbuch – BSB Cod.icon. 312c Cats had a bad reputation in the middle ages. Their presumed links with paganism and witchcraft meant they were often treated with suspicion. But despite their association with the supernatural, …
Mystery solved: when mammals’ ancestors became warm-blooded: Tritylodon, a therapsid, reconstructed as a night dwelling warm blooded animal. Note the steam coming out of its lungs. Illustrated by Luzia Soares Mammals and birds produce their own body heat and control their body temperatures. This process is known as endothermy, or warm-bloodedness, and it may be …
Our North African ancestors were making handaxes earlier than previously thought: Handaxes, as seen in the top row, were common to this period; the tools seen in the bottom row appear to be unique to this site. Rosalia Gallotti More than 1.5 million years ago, a new era dawned for our human ancestors, Homo erectus: …
Fossil offers fresh insights into social habits of our non-mammalian ancestors: A reconstruction of face-biting gorgonopsian skulls. Sophie Vrard, Creaphi Bite marks, in the form of traces left on bones by the teeth of scavengers or predators, are not uncommon in the fossil record. These marks are sometimes impressively large. What they show is that …
How we discovered the oldest human burial in Africa – and what it tells us about our ancestors: Virtual ideal reconstruction of Mtoto’s position in the burial pit. Jorge González/Elena Santos How did human uniqueness first evolve among our ancestors, setting us apart from other animals? That is a question many archaeologists are grappling with …
What triangular patterns on rocks may reveal about human ancestors: The larger of the two triangular geometric features (scale bar = 10 cm.) Charles Helm The Pleistocene epoch, which started 2.6 million years ago and lasted until about 11,700 years ago, was crucially important for our hominin ancestors. Homo sapiens first evolved in this era, …
What an unusual fossil reveals about parental care among pre-mammalian ancestors: This pair of curled-up Diictodon skeletons tell a story of male parental care. Authors supplied South Africa’s Karoo region is world famous for its wealth of fossil remains. Many of these are from long extinct land animals that lived between 280 and 200 million …
New fossil tracks belonging to human ancestors found in South Africa: A hominin track in Garden Route National Park, lightly outlined in chalk. The track is 24 centimetres long. Charles Helm Around a hundred thousand years ago, South Africa’s Cape south coast was a busy place. Giraffes, crocodiles, hatchling sea turtles and large bird species …
What archaeology tells us about the music and sounds made by Africa’s ancestors: Shutterstock Music has been part and parcel of humanity for a long time. Not every sound is musical, but sound has meaning and sometimes the meaning of sound is specific to its context. But when it comes to archaeology there is scant …
‘Ancestors’: a new game provides insights into how the first humans evolved: Panache Digital, Author provided As an academic scientist who researches human evolution, I was surprised to receive an email one day from Patrice Désilets, a top computer game designer responsible for the first two Assassin’s Creed games. He was working on a new …
Human ancestors may have spread to north Africa earlier than thought, stone tool discovery suggests: An Oldowan core freshly excavated at Ain Boucherit from which sharp-edged cutting flakes were removed. M. Sahnouni East Africa is famously the birthplace of humankind and the location where our ancient hominin ancestors first invented sophisticated stone tools. This technology, …
Fossil find offers first evidence of four-legged aquatic ancestors in Africa: An artist's impression of Tutusius at Waterloo Farm. Illustration by Maggie Newman Some of our ancestors had four legs, a finned tail and lived in water. They were aquatic tetrapods which, after the end of the Devonian period 359 million years ago, increasingly moved …
Shabaka And The Ancestors – a Africa interest event taking place on 2017-11-08 00:00:00 in United Kingdom One of Britain's most prolific saxophonists, Shabaka Hutchings, in collaboration with The Ancestors, graces the atmospheric surroundings of Islington Assembly Hall. An acclaimed bandleader and saxophonist on the London jazz scene, Shabaka Hutchings has spent his life immersed …
Pregnant fossil shows bird and crocodile ancestors gave birth to live young: Dinghua Yang & Jun Liu Giving birth to live young is one of the traits we use to distinguish mammals from other animals. But certain kinds of lizards, snakes and amphibians, both living and extinct, also reproduce without laying eggs. In fact, live …