Ancient

Hunting scenes, geometric patterns, hand stencils and other works of prehistoric art can exist on the walls of well-protected caves for tens of thousands of years - but only if there are no bats in the galleries.These flying mammals are…

Mr. Shanks died on February 5th at his Washington home. He was 90 years old. His daughter Elizabeth Alexander, a professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia, said the cause was complications from Covid-19.Mr. Shanks made…

Oddities plagued the earth about 42,000 years ago. Its magnetic field collapsed. Ice sheets billowed in North America, Australasia, and the Andes. Wind belts moved across the Pacific and the South Ocean. Persistent drought hit…

In 1931, researchers working in the south of France discovered a large mussel at the entrance to a cave. Inconspicuous at first glance, it languished in the collections of a nearby natural history museum for decades.Now a team has…

When Dr. Juan Aviles went to school in Puerto Rico, the teachers taught him that the original inhabitants of the island, the Taino, disappeared shortly after the colonization by Spain. Violence, disease and forced labor have wiped them…

More than 50,000 years ago, a cave in sandy soil collapsed on top of a wolf pup, killing it, protecting it from air and moisture, causing the pup's body to mummify in the cold.It remained buried in permafrost until four years ago when the…