In this week’s issue, a new theory on how Homo sapiens conquered the planet. Plus: black lava from a bizarre volcano could reveal Earth’s deep secrets.
— New Scientist (@newscientist) November 25, 2021
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Tag Archives: Homo Sapiens
Top Science Podcasts: Our Ancient Hominin Species DNA, Vikings, Lemur Love & “Gargantuan” Hail Stones
23 April 2020: Denisovan DNA in modern Europeans, and the birth of an unusual celestial object. This week, evidence of ancient hominin DNA in modern human genomes, and the origin of a snowman-shaped object at the edge of the solar system.
In this episode:
00:45 Intermixing of ancient hominins
By combing through the DNA of over 27,000 modern day Icelanders, researchers have uncovered new insights about the ancient hominin species who interbred with Homo sapiens. Research Article: Skov et al.
08:05 Research Highlights
The scent of lemur love, a hidden Viking trade route, and ‘gargantuan’ hail. Research Highlight: Lemurs’ love language is fragrance; Research Highlight: Vikings’ lost possessions mark a long-hidden early trade route; Research Highlight: Enormous hailstones inspire a new scientific size category: ‘gargantuan’
11:44 The origin of Arrokoth
In 2019, the New Horizon Spacecraft took images of Arrokoth – an unusual, bi-lobal object found in the Kuiper belt. Now, researchers believe they’ve figured out how it formed. Research Article: Grishin et al.
17:29 Pick of the Briefing
We pick some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This week we discuss why the Universe may be lopsided, and why water could actually be two different liquid states. Scientific American: Do We Live in a Lopsided Universe?; Chemistry World: The weirdness of water
Archaeology: “Blombos Cave”, South Africa – First Human “Technological Innovations” (Video)
See the first laboratory on Earth – Blombos Cave. Here our ancestors conducted the first chemistry experiments.
Blombos Cave is an archaeological site located in Blomboschfontein Nature Reserve, about 300 km east of Cape Town on the Southern Cape coastline, South Africa. The cave contains Middle Stone Age (MSA) deposits currently dated at between c. 100,000 and 70,000 years Before Present (BP), and a Late Stone Age sequence dated at between 2000 and 300 years BP. The cave site was first excavated in 1991 and field work has been conducted there on a regular basis since 1997, and is ongoing.
The excavations at Blombos Cave have yielded important new information on the behavioural evolution of anatomically modern humans. The archaeological record from this cave site has been central in the ongoing debate on the cognitive and cultural origin of early humans and to the current understanding of when and where key behavioural innovations emerged among Homo sapiens in southern Africa during the Late Pleistocene. Archaeological material and faunal remains recovered from the Middle Stone Age phase in Blombos Cave – dated to ca. 100,000–70,000 years BP – are considered to represent greater ecological niche adaptation, a more diverse set of subsistence and procurements strategies, adoption of multi-step technology and manufacture of composite tools, stylistic elaboration, increased economic and social organisation and occurrence of symbolically mediated behaviour.
The most informative archaeological material from Blombos Cave includes engraved ochre, engraved bone ochre processing kits, marine shell beads, refined bone and stone tools and a broad range of terrestrial and marine faunal remains, including shellfish, birds, tortoise and ostrich egg shell and mammals of various sizes.[20][21][22] These findings, together with subsequent re-analysis and excavation of other Middle Stone Age sites in southern Africa, have resulted in a paradigm shift with regard to the understanding of the timing and location of the development of modern human behaviour.
From Wikipedia
Boomers Daily 