pleistocene

The skull of Hippopotamus amphibius of Cava Montanari. Cranium in dorsal (A), ventral (B), right lateral (C), left lateral (D) and posterior (E) views. Mandible in occlusal (F) right lateral (G) and left lateral (H) views. Scale bar 10 cm. Credit: Mecozzi et al., 2023, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 New analysis settles long-standing confusion about the age of a key fossil. Modern hippos first dispersed in Europe during the Middle Pleistocene, a geological epoch that spanned from about 770,000 to 126,000 years ago. This is…

The Matalascañas site (El Pichilín Ranch area). (A) Geographical location and geological setting. (B) Mapping for the hominin footprints (HTS) and animal tracks (MTS) A and B. (C) Aerial view of the drone flight. (D–I) Some relevant footprints from the outcrop. All scale bar: 5 cm. (D) M2020-02. (E) M2020-06. (F) M2020-05. (G) M2020-11. (H) M2020-74. (I) M2020-35. The map in (B) was created using Adobe Photoshop Versión: 9.0 based on the photogrammetric…

Paleolithic cuisine was anything but lean and green, according to a 2021 study on the diets of our Pleistocene ancestors. For a good 2 million years, Homo sapiens and their ancestors ditched the salad and dined heavily on meat, putting them at the top of the food chain.  It's not quite the balanced diet of berries, grains, and steak we might picture when we think of 'paleo' food. But according to anthropologists from Israel's Tel Aviv University and the University of Minho in Portugal, modern hunter-gatherers have given…