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Evolution and inheritance

Engravings rewrite human history

A shell found on Java in the late 1800s was recently found to bear markings that seem to have been carved intentionally half a million years ago. The photograph is about 15 millimetres wide. Credit: Wim Lustenhouwer/VU University Amsterdam.
Scientists have found engravings on a 400,000 year-old fossilised shell from Java. It is the oldest known example of ancient humans deliberately creating pattern. Before [...]

Out of India

An artist's depiction of Cambaytherium thewissi. Credit: Elaine Kasmer
Fossils just found in India but dating from when it was an island belong to an ancestor of modern horses and rhinos. A team of US and Indian researchers found fossils from [...]

Life began underground

A quartz dyke at Hall's Creek, Australia, known as the China Wall. Credit: Graeme Churchard
Researchers in Germany have suggested that life on Earth may have begun underground. Ulrich Schreiber and Christian Mayer at the University of Duisburg-Essen say that their [...]

How cats were tamed

A blue Abyssinian cat. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Cats and humans have shared homes for at least 9,000 years, but we still know very little about how cats were tamed (domesticated). Researchers have found some clues by [...]

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