New technique yields troves of information from nanoscale bone samples

Source

Just for illustration purposes

New analysis techniques of bone tissue have been developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

What I gather of this technique, because it is a bit complex, is that researches can get information for tiny tiny pieces of bone samples. Which as you can imagine gives a whole new insight into research and "the fight against osteoporosis" (source) . Not to mention how it can help archeology!

"We're able to take very small, nanoscale-sized bone samples, and determine the protein signatures of the bone," said Deepak Vashishth, head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Rensselaer, who led the study. "This is a relatively quick, easy way for us to determine the history of the bone – how and when it formed – as well as the quality of the bone, and its likelihood to fracture." (source)

The study may be viewed online at: http://bit.ly/lAfSfI.

For more information on Vashishth and his research at Rensselaer, visit:
Faculty Home Page
http://www.eng.rpi.edu/soe/index.php/faculty/154?soeid=vashid
Proteins To Yield New Clues in Fight Against Osteoporosis
http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=2771
Rensselaer Names Vashishth New Head of Biomedical Engineering
http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=2663
Rensselaer Department of Biomedical Engineering
http://www.bme.rpi.edu/

Visit the Rensselaer research and discovery blog:
http://approach.rpi.edu
Follow us on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/RPInews

Source: New technique yields troves of information from nanoscale bone samples

Did Early Americans help colonise Easter Island?

Source

It would seem the answer is yes. New genetic evidence has proved this disputed theory correct. Well parts of it.

We know that Polynesia was colonised from Asia as there is tons of evidence for this but Thor Heyerdahl had another theory. He saw similarities in the famous statues of Easter Island to those from South America. He also sailed a wood raft from Peru to the Tuamotu islands of French Polynesia to show that it was possible.

Source

Erik Thorsby (from the University of Oslo) has found evidence to support some of Heyerdahl's theory. He did this by collecting "blood samples from Easter Islanders whose ancestors had not interbred with Europeans and other visitors to the island" (source). And some of these tests showed that Easter Islanders carried HLA genes that was "only previously found in Native American populations" (source).

For more genetic information on this study, click here.

Fascinating research!

Fun facts:

* Easter Island has a very rich collection of Petroglyphs.

Source

* Jacob Roggeveen found (first recorded visitor) the Island on Easter Sunday 1722 and thus gave the name Paasch-Eyland meaning Easter Island.

Sources:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20546-early-americans-helped-colonise-easter-island.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news
http://www.ablogabouthistory.com/2011/06/07/early-americans-colonized-easter-island/
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Easter_Island

Ancient "Pickled" Brain?

Source: http://resumbrae.com/ub/dms423_f07/04/

In 2008, a brain was found still preserved in mud. It was not done deliberately tho, it was the wet clay that preserved it.

The human brain dates between 673 and 482 B.C and most likely belonged to a man between 26 and 45 who was hanged and decapitated.

Still, these theories don't fully explain why the brain "didn't turn into mush," Collins said.
(Read "Beyond the Brain" in National Geographic magazine.) (source)

"It's curious, because normally it is one of those organs that degrade quickly," he said. "There must be something going on internally that we don't understand." (source)

Source:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/04/110406-oldest-brain-britain-archaeology-science-world/

Pictures:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/04/pictures/110406-oldest-human-brain-britain-science/

Protein from Bones of 600,000-Year-Old Mammoth Extracted Successfully

"ScienceDaily (Mar. 30, 2011) — Researchers from the University of York and Manchester have successfully extracted protein from the bones of a 600,000-year-old mammoth, paving the way for the identification of ancient fossils."

Read more here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110330101036.htm

X-rays an archaeological tool?

Source: Commons

It would seem that X-ray beams can be used in archaeology, as they can reveal invisible features of artifacts. Pigment layers can be shown more clearly and even traces of tool use can be shown.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/03/28/Powerful-X-rays-are-archaeological-tool/UPI-31191301347626/#ixzz1Hyp9Lyzd

Professor makes top 10 discovery

"Marvin Rowe, professor emeritus of chemistry was honored in the January 2011 issue of Archaeology Magazine for the "Top 10 Discoveries of 2010"; before that, he was honored at the annual meeting of the American Rock Art Research Association in March 2010." (Source)

"Rowe's discovery created a nondestructive technique that permits scientists to date valuable, rare and unique perishable organic archaeological artifacts without visible change to the artifact. The ordinary radiocarbon dating is a three-step process that results in the destruction of the artifact." (Source)

"Hopefully his technique will be adopted by more archaeologists and the knowledge of our past can be expanded, without sacrificing artifacts," said Elmo Mawk, senior lecturer for the Department of Chemistry. (Source)

Read the full article here:
http://www.thebatt.com/news/professor-makes-top-10-discovery-1.2017792

Ancient Brits used skull-cups

Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hofmeyr_Skull.jpg

About 14 700 years ago people used humans skulls as cups in Britain. They first cleaned the skulls and them used them.

 
"It was a very meticulous process that just proves how technologically advanced this population was. It also demonstrates a very complex funerary behavior."

"It's impossible to know how the skull cups were used back then, but in recent examples, they may hold blood, wine or food during rituals," said co-author of the study Chris Stringer adding that “a precise cast of the skull-cup from the adult individual will go on display at the Natural History Museum in London on March 1 for three months.”

Source: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/166209.html

3D fossil technology

    3-D Digital Dinosaur Track Download: A Roadmap for Saving at-Risk Natural
    History Resources 

"ScienceDaily (Feb. 12, 2011) — Portable laser scanning technology allows researchers to tote their latest fossil discovery from the field to the lab in the form of lightweight digital data stored on a laptop. But sharing that data as a 3D model with others requires standard formats that are currently lacking, say paleontologists at Southern Methodist University."

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110211124615.htm

Antartic Lake in Russia

The opening of secrets in Antarctic lake

 Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ralphunden/3127294767/sizes/m/in/photostream/

In Moscow a lake has been frozen for 15 million years and it is thought that there might be prehistoric or unknown life in it. Russian scientists are trying to break through.

"There's only a bit left to go," Alexei Turkeyev, chief of the Russian polar Vostok Station

"It's minus-40 (Celsius) outside," Turkeyev said. "But whatever, we're working. We're feeling good. There's only 5 meters left until we get to the lake so it'll all be very soon."

"It's like exploring an alien planet where no one has been before. We don't know what we'll find," said Valery Lukin of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) in St. Petersburg, which oversees the expedition. 

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41429257/ns/us_news-environment/

A 2500 year old recipe for Celtic beer

Source: Commons

Archeobotanist Hans-Peter Stika, of the University of Hohenheim has been looking at ancient Celtic sites, trying to figure out how they made beer.

It seems they dug a ditch and poured barley and water in it, leaving it to sprout. They then dried the barley with a fire. The beer was then flavored with gruit that contains yarrow, carrot seeds, mugwort, and henbane. The beer was then heated slowly by holding the it over a very low fire and adding yeast. Fruits or nuts was then sometimes added. When it was cooler, it could finally be consumed.

Source: http://io9.com/5734532/the-recipe-for-2500+year+old-celtic-beer

Ancient Organisms Found Alive in Salt Crystals

 Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/da_vinzy/3688076554/

Scientists have found organisms that were trapped in salt crystals 34,000 years ago.

“The organisms are called archaea, one of the two prokaryote domains (the other is bacteria),” Lowenstein told The Epoch Times. (source)

“We were the first group to look inside the salts before we tried to culture microbes from them,” Timofeeff added. (source)

“They are trapped alongside a type of algae called Dunaliella, which just so happens to produce the food the archaea need to survive—the sugar alcohol glycerol,” Lowenstein said, explaining how the organisms could survive for so long. (source)

“They can reproduce, but at some point they will use up their available resources and conditions for life will become unfavorable,” Timofeeff said. (source)

To read the research paper, please visit http://bit.ly/eqWOCp

And for more on this:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/49422/

Tree rings could reveal secrets about ancient life

Tree rings reveal clues about ancient Rome life

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/tudor/186603926/

A new study shows that tree rings could shows us more about the rise and fall of ancient European civilizations, such as Rome.

Scientists studied thousands of wooden artifacts that span over the last 2500 years. By doing this they determined general weather patterns over the last 2500 years.



They then compared the results with historical records and can now draw better conclusions about how climate change impacted early European life.

“Looking back on 2,500 years, there are examples where climate change impacted human history," co-author Ulf Buntgen, a paleoclimatologist at the Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape, told Science. (Source)

"Wet and warm summers occurred during periods of Roman and medieval prosperity. Increased climate variability from 250-600 AD coincided with the demise of the western Roman empire and the turmoil of the migration period," the team reported. (Source)

"Distinct drying in the 3rd Century paralleled a period of serious crisis in the western Roman empire marked by barbarian invasion, political turmoil and economic dislocation in several provinces of Gaul." (Source)

I find this fascinating and I look forward to reading more about such studies.

Source: http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences-features/53569-tree-rings-offer-glimpse-into-ancient-rome

How big monument stones were moved!

How did ancient people move stones like those at Stonehenge?

A fascinating article in Science Daily has come to my attention.

"ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2010) — A revolutionary new idea on the movement of big monument stones like those at Stonehenge has been put forward by an archaeology student at the University of Exeter." (Source)

Undergraduate Andrew Young tested his theory that carved stone balls found close to sites with Neolithic monuments must of had a purpose.

Long story short, they made a wooden track with a groove. Put the balls in the groove. And had a flat piece of wood with concrete slabs that simulate the weight of these monuments on it.

The platform with these concrete slabs moved with ease!

Neolithic people might not have used this method, but it possible.

Have a look at the rest of the article here, and a picture of the study:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101130010931.htm

Cancer in Ancient Egypt / Ancient champagne

Cancer did occur in Ancient Egypt

A Manchester United Egyptologist has recently stated that cancer did occur in ancient Egypt. One of the researchers working on this study has evidence of a handful of tumors in ancient human remains. However cancer was rare in antiquity.

More on this: 

http://www.newkerala.com/news/world/fullnews-88864.html

Ancient bubbly 

Bottles of champagne have been popped open in Finland, after nearly 200 years under water. Experts and enthusiasts gathered at an event in Mariehamn to grab a glass of the ancient bubbly which was rescued from a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea. (Source)

The vintage treasure included bottles of both Veuve Clicquot and the now defunct Juglar brands of champagne. Swedish wine connoisseaur Richard Juhlin had the honour of taking the first sip, which he described as 'wonderful.' (Source)

He noted that after nearly 200 years beneath the ocean the bubbly had lost its fizz, but not its flavour. The expert found hints of chanterelles, honey, orange and peach in the Juglar, and linden blossoms and lime peels in the Veuve Clicquot. (Source)

Source:
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/OddSpot/2010/11/22/Cork_pops_on_ancient_bubbly_542193.html

What Old Arrowheads Tell Us

What Old Arrowheads Tell Us about the Origins of Modern Thinking
by Heather Pringle

 

Photo of archaeologist Marlize Lombard at Sibudu Cave

A recent study that two archaeologists completed on a collection of 64,000-year-old stone tools from Sibudu Cave, a site perched on a forested cliff some 40 kilometers north of Durban, South Africa tell us about the origins of modern human behavior

"The Great Leap Forward" as it is known is said to be around 40,000 to 50,000 years ago when Homo sapiens started to show accomplishments in art, jewelry etc.

Dissenting archaeologists, however, suggested that the transition to behavioral modernity was a gradual affair unfolding over hundreds of thousands of years.  And recently evidence of a slow transition has accumulated. At Blombos Cave in South Africa, for example,  archaeologists found 75,000-year-old shell beads,  80,000 year-old bone tools,  as well as possible evidence of fishing—all indicators pointing to modern thinking and behavior. (source)

Now Lombard and Phillipson have come up with superb evidence of a much more sophisticated human behavior—the making of bows and arrows– 64,000 years ago.  Examining a collection of artifacts, largely from Sibudu Cave, the pair measured the 79 small stone points to see whether they fit into the range of arrowheads.  They did.  Then they looked for characteristic signs of impact damage, analyzed microresidues along the edges for traces of animal tissue,  and tested the backings for plant resins used to haft them. Everything pointed clearly to their use as arrowheads. (source)

Lastly, the two researchers drew up a list of the technologies early humans needed in order to make bows and arrows.  These ranged from the ability to make long strong cords and formal knots to the skill of harnessing the latent energy in flexed wood.  Early modern humans, concluded Lombard and Phillipson,  could be shown to possess nearly all of these in South Africa by 64,000 years ago.
I’m now convinced that bow-and-arrow hunting humans roamed the shadowy forests of South Africa 64,000 years ago–thousands of years before the proposed Great Leap Forward. God, it seems, really is in the details. (source)

Source: http://archaeology.org/blog/?p=1071

A Road lined with Sphinxes found / Ancient people more promiscuous?

Sphinx road found in Egypt

A sphinx-lined road (consisting of 12 sphinxes) has been found by Egyptian archaeologists in Luxor. It is said to have led to the temple of Mut.

Most of the sphinxes don't have their heads, and the name Nectabo 1 is inscribed on them. Most of them date back to 362 BC.

"This discovery marks the first time that archaeology has revealed this route, which is mentioned in many ancient texts," the statement said.

Read more: http://www.thirdage.com/news/sphinx-statues-discovered-egypt_11-15-2010#ixzz15QLdCpPc

http://www.thirdage.com/news/sphinx-statues-discovered-egypt_11-15-2010

http://www.qt.com.au/story/2010/11/16/12-more-sphinx-statues-unearthed-in-egypt/ 

Were Neanderthals More Promiscuous Than Modern Humans?

A study at the universities of Liverpool and Oxford using fossil finger bones suggest that Neanderthals were more promiscuous than humans today.

The team found that the fossil finger ratios of Neanderthals, and early members of the human species, were lower than most living humans, which suggests that they had been exposed to high levels of prenatal androgens. This indicates that early humans were likely to be more competitive and promiscuous than people today. (Source)

To find out more you will have to read the article, as it gets a bit technical!

Source:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101103081915.ht

Complete Mammoth Skeleton / Origins of First European Farmers

Complete Mammoth Skeleton found

It looks like a discovery in Lea County, N.M., could be a complete mammoth skeleton. The mammoth was found Delbert Sanderson, who saw the femur bone fossil sticking up out of the ground.

The New Mexico Natural History Museum Executive Director Calvin Smith said: “It is a major discovery,” “We usually find pieces and parts, but if this is a complete skeleton, it is very important.” “It is a significant find and one that deserves a lot of attention,” “If we are on the bottom of it, we are through, if we are on the top of it, we have another year’s work.” (Source)

So far  a femur, tibia, fibula and a carpal has been found

More on this:

http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20101114/NEWS02/711149927/0/s/Lea-County-fossil-find-may-be-whole-mammoth

http://www.koinlocal6.com/news/national/story/New-Mexico-fossil-find-could-be-complete-mammoth/H1YSK2w7X02bLtfCrygwgw.cspx

DNA Reveals Origins of First European Farmers

A team of international researchers led by ancient DNA experts from the University of Adelaide has resolved the longstanding issue of the origins of the people who introduced farming to Europe some 8000 years ago. (Source)

A detailed genetic study of one of the first farming communities in Europe, from central Germany, reveals marked similarities with populations living in the Ancient Near East (modern-day Turkey, Iraq and other countries) rather than those from Europe. (Source)

Project leader Professor Alan Cooper, Director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) at the University of Adelaide, says: "This overturns current thinking, which accepts that the first European farming populations were constructed largely from existing populations of hunter-gatherers, who had either rapidly learned to farm or interbred with the invaders." (Source)

The results of the study have been published today in the online peer-reviewed science journal PLoS Biology. (Source)

"We have finally resolved the question of who the first farmers in Europe were -- invaders with revolutionary new ideas, rather than populations of Stone Age hunter-gatherers who already existed in the area," says lead author Dr Wolfgang Haak, Senior Research Associate with ACAD at the University of Adelaide. (Source)

"We've been able to apply new, high-precision ancient DNA methods to create a detailed genetic picture of this ancient farming population, and reveal that it was radically different to the nomadic populations already present in Europe. (Source)

"We have also been able to use genetic signatures to identify a potential route from the Near East and Anatolia, where farming evolved around 11,000 years ago, via south-eastern Europe and the Carpathian Basin (today's Hungary) into Central Europe," Dr Haak says. (Source)

Source:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101109172344.htm

Oxygen impacts on Insects / T-Rex Cannibal?

Giant Dragonfly experiment with oxygen 

"ScienceDaily (Oct. 30, 2010) — The giant dragonflies of ancient Earth with wingspans of up to 70 centimeters (28 inches) are generally attributed to higher oxygen atmospheric levels in the atmosphere in the past. New experiments in raising modern insects in various oxygen-enriched atmospheres have confirmed that dragonflies grow bigger with more oxygen, or hyperoxia." (Source)

"Our main interest is in how paleo-oxygen levels would have influenced the evolution of insects," said John VandenBrooks of Arizona State University in Tempe. To do that they decided to look at the plasticity of modern insects raised in different oxygen concentrations. The team raised cockroaches, dragonflies, grasshoppers, meal worms, beetles and other insects in atmospheres containing different amounts of oxygen to see if there were any effects. (Source)

One result was that dragonflies grew faster into bigger adults in hyperoxia. However, cockroaches grew slower and did not become larger adults. In all, ten out of twelve kinds of insects studied decreased in size in lower oxygen atmospheres. But there were varied responses when they were placed into an enriched oxygen atmosphere. VandenBrooks is presenting the results of the work Nov. 1 at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver. (Source)

"There have been a lot of hypotheses about the impact of oxygen on evolution of animals, but nobody has really tested them," said VandenBrooks. "So we have used a two-pronged approach: 1) study modern insects in varying oxygen levels and 2) study fossil insects and understand changes in the past in light of these results." (Source)

For more on this interesting subject:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101029132924.htm

Was T-Rex and Cannibal?

A few dozen T. rex bones have been looked at by a Yale University paleontologist. He found three foot bones and one arm bone that showed evidence of T. rex bite marks.

"It's surprising how frequent it appears to have been. We're not exactly sure what that means," Nick Longrich said in a Yale news release. (Source)

"Modern big carnivores do this all the time. It's a convenient way to take out the competition and get a bit of food at the same time," Longrich said. (Source)

"These animals were some of the largest terrestrial carnivores of all time, and the way they approached eating was fundamentally different from modern species. There's a big mystery around what and how they ate, and this research helps to uncover one piece of the puzzle," Longrich said. (Source)

More Articles:
http://www.healthscout.com/news/1/644428/main.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/10/101015-t-rex-cannibals-paleontology-science/
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/1016/1224281251723.html

Primates originally from Asia?

Did Primates originate in Asia and not Africa?

A Team of researchers has published a new study on the discovery of four species of anthropoid primate found in the Sahara desert. It is believed they are around 39 million years old and that it they represent the members of a primate migration from Asia. 

Dr Christopher Beard, of Carnegie Museum of Natural History and author of the new paper states in the UK's Daily Mail, "If our ideas are correct, this early colonization of Africa by anthropoids was a truly pivotal event—one of the key points in our evolutionary history.  It led to a period of flourishing evolutionary divergence amongst anthropoids, and one of those lineages resulted in humans. If our early anthropoid ancestors had not succeeded in migrating from Asia to Africa, we simply wouldn’t exist." (Source)

The three clades that the primates belonged to have not been found in early deposits in the region, despite over 100 years of dedicated fossil collection in Africa.  Thus the team feels the evidence clearly points to the recent discoveries being recent arrivals, overseas travelers from Asia. (Source)

Dr. Bear reports, "This extraordinary new fossil site in Libya shows us that 39 million years ago there was a surprising diversity of anthropoids living in Africa, whereas few if any anthropoids are known from Africa before this time. This sudden appearance of such diversity suggests that these anthropoids probably colonized Africa from somewhere else. Without earlier fossil evidence in Africa, we’re currently looking to Asia as the place where these animals first evolved." (Source)

The new study is published in Nature.

 

More articles:

http://www.dailytech.com/Fossil+Discoveries+Indicate+Primates+Originally+Evolved+in+Asia/article20006.htm

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/1027/Human-ancestors-may-have-originated-in-Asia-not-Africa

http://news.discovery.com/animals/primate-ancestors-evolution.html

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/10/26/Fossils-double-age-of-humans-in-Asia/UPI-38351288130209/

Ancient invalid / Stonehenge skeleton / Trampling of Artifacts

The first known ancient invalid cared for by Hunter-gatherers

 Just for illustration

An ancient Hunchback that lived 500,000 years ago is the most elderly ancient human ever found (45 years old when died). He has been named "Elvis" after his pelvis and lower backbone were found in Spain. 

"His spine was bent forward so, to keep an upright posture, he possibly used a cane, just like elderly people today," says Alejandro Bonmatí of the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. (Source)

More on this topic:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19568-huntergatherers-cared-for-first-known-ancient-invalid.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

Stonehenge skeleton came from Mediterranean

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonmarulanda/3736708170/

It is said that the "The Boy with the Amber Necklace" (he was wearing amber beads) buried near the Stonehenge monument came from the Mediterranean. He is dated to 1,550 B.C. and believed to be from a rich family.

"The find adds considerable weight to the idea that people traveled long distances to visit Stonehenge, which must therefore have had a big reputation as a cult center," Timothy Darvill said. "Long distance travel was certainly more common at this time than we generally think." (Source)

More on this:

http://www.argus-press.com/news/international/article_b7a880e7-3650-567b-900c-0aa6b0d09ae0.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39440606/ns/world_news-europe/

What happens when a Artifact gets Trampled? 

Just for illustration © Copyright Bill Boaden

Around the world, the hooves of water buffaloes, goats, and other large animals may have propelled countless Stone Age artifacts back in time, at least as far as archaeologists are concerned. In wet areas, wild or domestic animals' heavy footfalls can push stone artifacts deep into the ground, making them seem older than they really are—in some cases, thousands of years older—according to a new study. (Source)

This is fascinating! Read here how to identify such a site and all the implications of this! There is also a picture of this study in India!  

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/09/100929-trampling-stone-age-artifacts-dating-goats-science/