Prehistoric

Credit: Durham University For a team of archaeologists digging in southwest Spain, the discovery of a Bronze/Iron Age stela—a funerary stone slab with carvings depicting an important individual—would have been exciting enough. But to find a stela that challenges longstanding interpretations of how the carvings represent gender and social roles in prehistoric times was beyond the teams' wildest dreams.…

Photo via Angel Studios These days, anything Disney does is instantly labeled as another bad decision. But while ditching Nimona for its LGBTQ+ themes proves that the Mouse House ain’t very bright, its refusal to release yet another project might actually be the studio’s first smart decision in a while, even though the film is currently winning the box office before even releasing. Meanwhile, a struggling reboot — which has been stuck in developmental hell for the last 15 years — daydreams of joining the elites.…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Language can be a time machine—we can learn from ancient texts how our ancestors interacted with the world around them. But can language also teach us something about people whose language has been lost? Ph.D. candidate Anthony Jakob investigated whether the languages of prehistoric populations left traces in Lithuanian and Latvian. …

A new study provides empirical evidence that the extinct Megalodon shark was warm-blooded. Using a novel geochemical technique on fossil teeth, researchers found that this warmth might have played a role in the Megalodon’s gigantism and possibly its extinction, highlighting the vulnerability of large marine predators to environmental changes.In a recent study, researchers used a new geochemical technique on fossil teeth to confirm that the extinct Megalodon shark was warm-blooded. This warmth, which facilitated the…

Fiber technology at Tabon Cave, 39-33 000 years ago. An artistic view based on the latest archaeological data. Drawing by Carole Cheval-Art'chéograph. Made for the exhibition "Trajectories and Movements of the Philippine Identity" curated by Hermine Xhauflair and Eunice Averion. Scientific advising: Hermine Xhauflair. Credit: Carole Cheval - Art'chéograph, Xhauflair & Averion, CC-BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)…

The seven aerophones discovered at Eynan-Mallaha. Credit: © Laurent Davin Although the prehistoric site of Eynan-Mallaha in northern Israel has been thoroughly examined since 1955, it still holds some surprises for scientists. Seven prehistoric wind instruments known as flutes, recently identified by a Franco-Israeli team, are the subject of an article published on 9 June in Scientific Reports.…

Binary and non-binary models (F: female/feminine; M: male/masculine). Credit: Nicola Ialongo/Eleonore Pape People tend to think that the idea that biological sex is linked with one's role in society belongs in the past. But was it even the case in prehistory? Archaeologists at the University of Göttingen have investigated the representation of gender in Neolithic and Bronze Age graves (around 5500 BC to 1200 BC), in order to…

A reconstruction with one loop, and a reconstruction with two, and the ways in which Justin Garnett held them, respectively. Credit: University of Kansas When most researchers looked at a puzzling group of artifacts discovered at French archaeological sites, they presumed these to be ornaments or clothing. But Justin Garnett saw something else. …

Behold the newest snarling, scurrying, foraging, and feasting dinosaurs and other extinct creatures of Prehistoric Planet.The show’s second season begins May 22 on Apple TV+, featuring over two dozen new species from various branches of the tree of life as it existed some 66 million years ago, give or take a few million (well, don’t take more than a couple.)I spoke with showrunner Tim Walker and Darren Naish, a paleozoologist and the series’s chief scientific consultant, to learn what to expect from the new season and,…

Ever since The Blue Planet debuted more than two decades ago, we’ve been living in a particularly fruitful era of nature docs from the likes of the BBC and all of the various streamers. With all of that celebrity-voiced competition, it’s hard to do something new in the space, but Apple TV Plus managed it by looking at something old — really old.The first season of Prehistoric Planet had all the trappings of a traditional wildlife documentary, right down to the reassuring voice of Sir David Attenborough, but used them to…