Were the Neanderthals land-locked? Or did they master the seas as ancient mariners? Neanderthals: Were they Ancient Mariners? Recently, researchers discovered Neanderthal-type tools in Greece as well as on several Greek islands. Although they have yet to be dated, they provide some intriguing evidence that Neanderthals crossed the Mediterranean Sea 100,000 years ago. It’s possible…
Flatworms have the ability to regenerate seemingly forever. Could they hold the key to human immortality? Do Flatworms hold the Keys to Immortality? Here’s more on flatworms and immortality from The Telegraph: Experts from Nottingham University managed to create a colony of more than 20,000 flatworms from one original by chopping it into pieces and…
Deep in the jungles of the Petén Basin lies Calakmul, one of the great lost cities of the Mayas. The Lost City of Calakmul? The lost city of Calakmul remained undiscovered by outsiders until 1931. Since that time, it’s become more accessible but just barely. It’s an archaeological paradise and contains the second-largest Maya structure…
Don’t worry shipwreck hunters…according to some estimates, as much as $60 billion in sunken treasure still lies beneath the ocean’s surface. How much Treasure still lies Underwater? No one knows for sure how much treasure lies underwater, waiting to be discovered. But according to recent estimates, as much as $60 billion in sunken treasure still awaits…
In 1820, the U.S. whaling industry was just a blip, generating about $1 million in revenue per year. Thirty years later, it had grown nearly 1,000%, making the U.S. the global leader in whaling. By 1900, U.S. whaling revenues had declined an astonishing 90%. What happened? The Mysterious Decline of the U.S. Whaling Industry? The rise…
The latest news from Siberia is that Russian scientists appear to have grown an extinct plant called the narrow-leafed campion using 31,800 year-old seeds buried by ancient squirrels. An Extinct Plant…Brought back to Life? The reviving of the Narrow-Leafed Campion is just the latest in a series of ancient genetic breakthroughs, including the sequencing of…
The Classic Maya Collapse is one of history’s greatest mysteries. How did it happen? And why do civilizations collapse? The Classic Maya Collapse? The Classic Maya period took place in the southern Maya lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula, starting around 200 AD (you can see one of the remnants of that civilization up above…that’s Palenque…
On December 21, 1872, the HMS Challenger left Portsmouth, England with ~240 people. Four years later it returned, completing one of the greatest ocean expeditions of all time. What was the strange voyage of the HMS Challenger? The Strange Voyage of the HMS Challenger? The HMS Challenger discovered over 4,000 ocean creatures, many of which…