ScienceDaily: Fossils & Ruins News

The long-distance migrations of early Bronze Age pastoralists in the Eurasian steppe have captured widespread interest. But the factors behind their remarkable spread have been heavily debated by archaeologists. Now a new study provides clues regarding a critical component of the herders' lifestyle that was likely instrumental to their success: dairying.

A new study uses a wide range of methods to date the heavily eroded reliefs, and connecting them to a period in which a green Arabia was home to monument-building pastoralists.

A new study suggests that all living snakes evolved from a handful of species that survived the giant asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs and most other living things at the end of the Cretaceous. The authors say that this devastating extinction event was a form of 'creative destruction' that allowed snakes to diversify into new niches, previously filled by their competitors.

The ribbon of fast winds familiar to air travelers between North America and Europe is a big influencer on weather in North America and Europe. By drilling deep into the Greenland Ice Sheet, researchers reconstructed the jet stream's past and found that climate-caused disruptions are likely to have drastic weather-related consequences for societies on both sides of the Atlantic.

A new study has discovered the oldest known cavities found in a mammal, the likely result of a diet that included eating fruit.

By using artificial intelligence to mine big data related to artists, film directors and scientists, researchers have found that years of exploration (studying diverse styles or topics) immediately followed by years of exploitation (focusing on a narrow area to develop deep expertise) can lead to a career's greatest hits.

Using a leaf uncovered from the archaeological site of an ancient Egyptian temple, researchers from NYU Abu Dhabi's (NYUAD) Center for Genomics and Systems Biology have successfully determined the ancient hybrid origin of some date palms, which could prove useful for modern date palm breeding as the plant remains a cornerstone of Middle Eastern and North African agriculture.