Human Prehistory (3.3 million years BC – 3500 BC)

[wjfox]

Face of 75,000-year-old Neanderthal woman revealed

9 hours ago

What would it be like to meet one of our closest human relatives from 75,000 years ago in the flesh?

Scientists have produced a remarkable reconstruction of what a Neanderthal woman would have looked like when she was alive.

It is based on the flattened, shattered remains of a skull whose bones were so soft when excavated they had the consistency of "a well-dunked biscuit".

Researchers first had to strengthen the fragments before reassembling them.

Expert palaeoartists then created the 3D model.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68922877



Image source, BBC Studios/Jamie Simonds

[Time_Traveller]

Prehistoric DNA being dug up to see if it can help modern-day crops cope with climate change

Monday 6 May 2024 08:31, UK



Prehistoric plant DNA is being dug up from deep below the Arctic to see if it can help modern-day crops cope with the effects of climate change.

Researchers from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh are working with European scientists to analyse microbes from the palaeolithic period, when, like today, the planet was becoming warmer.

The university team has been awarded £500,000 by Horizon Europe, a European Union scientific research initiative, to spend four years examining ancient soil samples extracted from deep below the Arctic under a project named Tolerate.

Dr Ross Alexander, a plant molecular biologist at Heriot-Watt, said researchers were "using samples from the palaeolithic period, around 100-200,000 years ago, because the planet was warming then, much like now".

The aim, he said, was "to find out whether the plants, soil and bacteria of the past can help our current crops survive in a rapidly changing planet".

https://news.sky.com/story/prehistoric- ... e-13130394