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Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
 NatureMost of the harmful mutations in people arose in the past 5,000 to 10,000 years A study of the age of more than 1 million single-letter variations in the human DNA code reveals that most of these mutations are of recent origin, evolutionarily speaking. They arose as a result of explosive population growth, which provides more chances for new mutations to appear in offspring. Many of these mutations are harmful, some have no effect, and others are beneficial now or may provide an adaptive advantage for future generations. 
NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Exome Sequencing Project
Contact: Leila Gray
Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
American Schools of Oriental Research 2012 Annual MeetingURI, IAA archaeologists discover shipwrecks, ancient harbor on coast of Israel A team of archaeologists have discovered the remains of a fleet of early-19th century ships and ancient harbor structures from the Hellenistic period at the city of Akko, one of the major ancient ports of the eastern Mediterranean. The findings shed light on a period of history that is little known and point to how and where additional remains may be found. Contact: Todd McLeish
Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
NatureScientists develop new approach to support future climate projections Scientists have developed a new approach for evaluating past climate sensitivity data to help improve comparison with estimates of long-term climate projections developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Contact: Glenn Harris
Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
PLOS ONESkeletons in cave reveal Mediterranean secrets Skeletal remains in an island cave in Favignana, Italy, reveal that modern humans first settled in Sicily around the time of the last ice age and despite living on Mediterranean islands, ate little seafood. The research is published Nov. 28 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Marcello Mannino and colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany. Contact: Jyoti Madhusoodanan
Public Release: 27-Nov-2012
Nature Climate ChangeFish ear bones point to climate impacts Scientists believe that fish ear bones and their distinctive growth rings can offer clues to the likely impacts of climate change in aquatic environments.
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
Contact: Bryony Bennett
Public Release: 21-Nov-2012
World Archaeology'Trust' provides answer to handaxe enigma Trust rather than lust is at the heart of the attention to detail and finely made form of handaxes from around 1.7 million years ago, according to a University of York researcher. Dr Penny Spikins suggests a desire to prove their trustworthiness, rather than a need to demonstrate their physical fitness as a mate, was the driving force behind the fine crafting of handaxes by Homo erectus/ergaster in the Lower Palaeolithic period. Contact: Caron Lett
Public Release: 19-Nov-2012
Journal of the North AtlanticGreenland's viking settlers gorged on seals Greenland's viking settlers, the Norse, disappeared suddenly and mysteriously from Greenland about 500 years ago. Natural disasters, climate change and the inability to adapt have all been proposed as theories to explain their disappearance. But now a Danish-Canadian research team has demonstrated the Norse society did not die out due to an inability to adapt to the Greenlandic diet: an isotopic analysis of their bones shows they ate plenty of seals. Contact: Professor Niels Lynnerup
Public Release: 19-Nov-2012
Current BiologyNew species literally spend decades on the shelf Many of the world's most unfamiliar species are just sitting around on museum shelves collecting dust. That's according to a report in the November 20th issue of the Cell Press journal Current Biology showing that it takes more than 20 years on average before a species, newly collected, will be described. Contact: Lisa Lyons
Public Release: 16-Nov-2012
Current AnthropologyWe're in this together: A pathbreaking investigation into the evolution of cooperative behavior The origins of cooperative behavior are not altruism, but mutual interest, according to a new study in Current Anthropology. Contact: Dr. Michael Tomasello
Public Release: 15-Nov-2012
PLOS ONEScientists improve dating of early human settlement A Simon Fraser University archaeologist and his colleagues at the University of Queensland in Australia have significantly narrowed down the time frame during which the last major chapter in human colonization, the Polynesian triangle, occurred. The authors have recently had their claims published in an article in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. Contact: Carol Thorbes
Public Release: 15-Nov-2012
'It’s not like CSI': The science of the search for Richard III The complexity of tests being performed on Grey Friars skeleton mean answers will not come overnight. Contact: Ather Mirza
Public Release: 15-Nov-2012
Mercury poisoning ruled out as cause of Tycho Brahe's death The results of this intensive work now make it possible to rule out mercury poisoning as a cause of death. Contact: Jens Vellev
Public Release: 15-Nov-2012
ScienceArchaeologists identify oldest spear points A collaborative study found that human ancestors were making stone-tipped weapons 500,000 years ago at the South African archaeological site of Kathu Pan 1 – 200,000 years earlier than previously thought.
Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada, National Science Foundation, Hyde Family Foundation
Contact: Julie Russ
Public Release: 15-Nov-2012
ScienceArchaeologists identify spear tips used in hunting a half-million years ago A University of Toronto-led team of anthropologists has found evidence that human ancestors used stone-tipped weapons for hunting 500,000 years ago – 200,000 years earlier than previously thought. Hafted spear tips are common in Stone Age archaeological sites after 300,000 years ago. This new study shows that they were also used in the early Middle Pleistocene, a period associated with Homo heidelbergensis and the last common ancestor of Neandertals and modern humans.
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, National Science Foundation, Hyde Family
Contact: Sean Bettam
Public Release: 12-Nov-2012
American Schools of Oriental ResearchDesecrated ancient temple sheds light on early power struggles at Tel Beth-Shemesh In a finding unparalleled in the archaeological record, Tel Aviv University researchers have uncovered evidence of the desecration of a sacred temple at the excavation of Tel Beth-Shemesh in Israel. Contact: George Hunka
Public Release: 12-Nov-2012
PLOS ONEMongolia and the Altai Mountains: Origins of genetic blending between Europeans and Asians A group of researchers led by the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona has discovered the first scientific evidence of genetic blending between Europeans and Asians in the remains of ancient Scythian warriors living over 2,000 years ago in the Altai region of Mongolia. Contrary to what was believed until now, the results published in PLoS ONE indicate that this blending was not due to an eastward migration of Europeans, but to a demographic expansion of local Central Asian populations. Contact: Maria Jesus Delgado
Public Release: 12-Nov-2012
Soil Science Society of America JournalResearchers unlock ancient Maya secrets with modern soil science Soil scientists and archeologists have uncovered evidence that the Maya grew corn sustainably in the lowlands of Tikal, Guatemala, but that they may also have farmed erosion-prone slopes over time.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Madeline Fisher
Public Release: 8-Nov-2012
ScienceExtreme weather preceded collapse of Maya civilization Decades of extreme weather crippled, and ultimately decimated, first the political culture and later the human population of the ancient Maya, according to a new study by an interdisciplinary team of researchers that includes two University of California, Davis, scientists.
National Science Foundation, European Research Council, Alphawood Foundation
Contact: Kat Kerlin
Public Release: 8-Nov-2012
ScienceThe collapse of Classic Maya civilization linked to drought The Classic Maya culture thrived in rainy times and then collapsed in turmoil as the weather turned to drought, according to new research.
National Science Foundation, European Research Council, Swiss National Science Foundation
Contact: Carl Stiansen
Public Release: 8-Nov-2012
ScienceResearchers find linkages between climate change and political, human impacts among ancient Maya An international team of archaeologists and earth science researchers has compiled a precisely dated, high-resolution climate record of 2,000 years that shows how Maya political systems developed and disintegrated in response to climate change. The researchers reconstructed rainfall records from stalagmite samples collected from Yok Balum Cave, located nearly three miles from ancient city of Uxbenka, in the tropical Maya Lowlands in southern Belize. They compared their findings to the rich political histories carved on stone monuments at Maya cities throughout the region.
National Science Foundation, European Research Council, Swiss National Science Foundation, and others
Contact: Vicki Fong
Public Release: 7-Nov-2012
NatureSmall lethal tools have big implications for early modern human complexity On the south coast of South Africa, scientists have found evidence for an advanced stone age technology dated to 71,000 years ago at Pinnacle Point near Mossel Bay. When combined with other findings of advanced technologies and evidence for early symbolic behavior from this region, the research documents a persistent pattern of behavioral complexity that might signal modern humans evolved in this coastal location.
National Science Foundation, Hyde Family Foundation
Contact: Julie Russ
Public Release: 7-Nov-2012
PLOS ONECoral files reveal time of first Polynesian settlements Polynesia was one of the last places on Earth to be settled by humans, and new techniques reveal that this settlement first occurred within a 16 year window nearly 3,000 years ago. The research, published Nov. 7 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by David Burley and colleagues from Simon Fraser University, Canada, reveals that the first human settlers lived in a founder colony on the islands of Tonga between 2,830 to 2,846 years ago. Contact: Jyoti Madhusoodanan
Public Release: 25-Oct-2012
BoreasDid the changing climate shrink Europe's ancient hippos? Giant German hippopotamuses wallowing on the banks of the Elbe are not a common sight. Yet 1.8 million years ago hippos were a prominent part of European wildlife, when mega-fauna such as woolly mammoths and giant cave bears bestrode the continent. Now palaeontologists writing in Boreas, believe that the changing climate during the Pleistocene Era may have forced Europe's hippos to shrink to pygmy sizes before driving them to warmer climes. Contact: Ben Norman
Public Release: 22-Oct-2012
Unisa Classics ColloquiumWant the shortest path to the good life? Try cynicism Research by a University of Cincinnati classics professor sheds new light on the philosophy of the ancient Cynics. They actually held values they viewed as a shortcut to happiness. Contact: M.B. Reilly
Public Release: 22-Oct-2012
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early EditionComplete mitochondrial genome sequences of ancient New Zealanders In a landmark study, University of Otago researchers have achieved the feat of sequencing complete mitochondrial genomes for members of what was likely to be one of the first groups of Polynesians to settle New Zealand and have revealed a surprising degree of genetic variation among these pioneering voyagers. Contact: Lisa Matisoo-Smith
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