In Melka Kunture, Ethiopia, researchers found 575 obsidian hand-axes that are 1.2 million years old and believed to have come from a dedicated workshop. The discovery means that hominins (early humans and ancestors) may have been skilled craftspeople capable of working with obsidian some 500,000 years earlier than scientists believed. A volcanic glass that is fragile and sharp, obsidian requires a certain level of skill to …
A 525-million-year-old fossil of an extinct worm-like animal known as the Cardiodictyon catenulum was first discovered in China in 1984, but only recently have scientists found that the barely half-an-inch animal has a brain. Using a technique called “chromatic filtering,” scientists were able to reveal the animal’s nervous system and brain in an unsegmented head. Not only is this finding extremely out of the ordinary—as …
Penned by science writer and children’s book author Isabel Thomas and illustrated by Sara Gillingham, Full of Life: Exploring Earth’s Biodiversity merges art, ecology and design to teach young ones about the scientific model known as Earth’s Tree of Life. With a stunning, accessible layout and comprehensive glossary, the book explains all that is fascinating and magical about the planet’s creatures and how each one—from microorganisms …
