ScienceDaily: Fossils & Ruins News

All life evolves: microorganisms can become resistant to drugs, viruses evade our vaccines, and species may adapt to climate change. Even the ability to evolve can evolve. If we were to understand how this happens and which mechanisms play a role, it may be possible to predict evolution to some extent.

There is no other place where so many Neolithic pile dwellings have been uncovered as around the Alps. It is a mystery, however, how this 'building boom' came to be. Researchers have now uncovered new clues, and say that settlers at Lake Varese in northern Italy may have played a leading role.

When did populations of Homo sapiens first arrive in China and what happened when they encountered the Denisovans or Neanderthals who lived there? A new study opens a window into hunter-gatherer lifestyles 40,000 years ago. Archaeological excavations at the site of Xiamabei in the Nihewan Basin of northern China have revealed the presence of innovative behaviors and unique toolkits.

Abrupt shifts in the evolution of animals -- short periods of time when an organism rapidly changes size or form -- have long been a challenge for theorists including Darwin. Now a newly published research paper supports the idea that even these abrupt changes are underpinned by a gradual directional process of successive incremental changes, as Darwin's theory of evolution assumes.

New analysis has identified how the design of Stonehenge may have represented a calendar, helping people track a solar year of 365.25 days calibrated by the alignment of the solstices. Although it had long been thought to be a calendar, pinpointing how it functioned was only possible thanks to modern discoveries. The large sarsens that dominate the site appear to reflect a calendar with 12 months of 30 days, divided into 10 day 'weeks'. An intercalary month and leap days aligned it with the solar year. Such calendars had been developed in ancient Egypt, raising the possibility Stonehenge's calendar system had its roots elsewhere.

A new analysis of Tyrannosaurus skeletal remains reveals physical differences in the femur, other bones and dental structures across specimens that could suggest Tyrannosaurus rex specimens need to be re-categorized into three distinct groups or species, reports a new study.