* Astronomy

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RE: Homo Sapiens

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Egg shells illustrate human story

Inscribed ostrich shell fragments found in South Africa are among the earliest examples of the use of symbolism by modern humans, scientists say.
The etched shells from Diepkloof Rock Shelter in Western Cape have been dated to about 60,000 years ago.
Details are reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Title: A Howiesons Poort tradition of engraving ostrich eggshell containers dated to 60,000 years ago at Diepkloof Rock Shelter, South Africa
Authors: Pierre-Jean Texiera, Guillaume Porraz, John Parkington, Jean-Philippe Rigaud, Cedric Poggenpoel, Christopher Miller, Chantal Tribolo, Caroline Cartwright, Aude Coudenneau, Richard Klein, Teresa Steele, and Christine Verna

Ongoing debates about the emergence of modern human behaviour, however defined, regularly incorporate observations from the later part of the southern African Middle Stone Age and emphasize the early appearance of artifacts thought to reflect symbolic practice. Here we report a large sample of 270 fragments of intentionally marked ostrich eggshell from the Howiesons Poort at Diepkloof Rock Shelter, Western Cape, South Africa. Dating from ~60,000 years ago, these pieces attest to an engraving tradition that is the earliest reliable evidence of what is a widespread modern practice. These abstract linear depictions were made on functional items (eggshell containers), which were curated and involved in daily hunter-gatherer life. The standardised production of repetitive patterns, including a hatched band motif, suggests a system of symbolic representation in which collective identities and individual expressions are clearly communicated, suggesting social, cultural, and cognitive underpinnings that overlap with those of modern people.

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Skeleton of 8,000-year-old pre-historic human found in Malaysia

Eight thousand-year-old skeletal remains believed to be those of a pre-historic human have been discovered from the Gua Bewah Cave in the Kenyir Lake area here.
The Star Online quoted the deputy director of the Institute of the Malay World and Civilisation Prof Nik Hasan Shuhaimi Nik Abdul Rahman, as saying that the remains found at a depth of 65 to 70cm could be between 8,000 and 11,000 years old.
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Scientists may have solved the mystery of how human hands became nimble enough to make and manipulate stone tools.
The team reports in the journal Evolution that changes in our hands and fingers were a side-effect of changes in the shape of our feet.
This, they say, shows that the capacity to stand and walk on two feet is intrinsically linked to the emergence of stone tool technology.
The scientists used a mathematical model to simulate the changes.
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Humans carry in their genome the relics of an animal virus that infected their forerunners at least 40 million years ago, according to research published Wednesday by the British science journal Nature.
The invader is called bornavirus, a brain-infecting pathogen that was first identified in 1970s.
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30,000-year-old teeth shed new light on human evolution

The teeth of a 30,000-year-old child are shedding new light on the evolution of modern humans, thanks to research from the University of Bristol published this week in PNAS.
The teeth are part of the remarkably complete remains of a child found in the Abrigo do Lagar Velho, Portugal and excavated in 1998-9 under the leadership of Professor João Zilhão of the University of Bristol. Classified as a modern human with Neanderthal ancestry, the child raises controversial questions about how extensively Neanderthals and modern human groups of African descent interbred when they came into contact in Europe.
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Evidence of sophisticated, human behaviour has been discovered by Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers as early as 750,000 years ago - some half a million years earlier than has previously been estimated by archaeologists.
The discovery was made in the course of excavations at the prehistoric Gesher Benot Ya'aqov site, located along the Dead Sea rift in the southern Hula Valley of northern Israel, by a team from the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology. Analysis of the spatial distribution of the findings there reveals a pattern of specific areas in which various activities were carried out. This kind of designation indicates a formalised conceptualisation of living space, requiring social organisation and communication between group members. Such organisational skills are thought to be unique to modern humans.
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An international scientific effort has revealed the genetics behind Asia's diversity.
The Human Genome Organisation's (HUGO) Pan-Asian SNP Consortium carried out a study of almost 2,000 people across the continent.
Their findings support the hypothesis that Asia was populated primarily through a single migration event from the south.
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The discovery of an early human fossil in southern China may challenge the commonly held idea that modern humans originated out of Africa.
Jin Changzhu and colleagues of the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing, announced to Chinese media last week that they have uncovered a 110,000-year-old putative Homo sapiens jawbone from a cave in southern China's Guangxi province.
The mandible has a protruding chin like that of Homo sapiens, but the thickness of the jaw is indicative of more primitive hominins, suggesting that the fossil could derive from interbreeding.
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