ScienceDaily: Fossils & Ruins News

Learning from extinction: New insights on controlling cancer Posted: 18 Feb 2015 09:37 AM PST A researcher brings a paleontological view of species extinction to bear on the challenges involved in driving populations of cancer cells to annihilation -- or at least improving patient prognosis through disease-limiting efforts.

New insights into origins of the world's languages Posted: 18 Feb 2015 09:34 AM PST Linguists have long agreed that languages from English to Greek to Hindi, known as 'Indo-European languages', are the modern descendants of a language family that first emerged from a common ancestor spoken thousands of years ago. Now, a new study gives us more information on when and where it was most likely used. Using data from over 150 languages, linguists provide evidence that this ancestor language originated 5,500 - 6,500 years ago on the Pontic-Caspian steppe.

Neanderthal groups based part of their lifestyle on sexual division of labor Posted: 18 Feb 2015 09:34 AM PST Neanderthals divided some of their tasks according to their sex. A new study analyzed 99 teeth of 19 individuals from three different sites (El Sidron, in Asturias - Spain, L'Hortus in France, and Spy in Belgium), reveals that the dental grooves in the female fossils follow the same pattern, different to that found in male individuals.

Tropical fire ants traveled the world on 16th century ships Posted: 18 Feb 2015 09:29 AM PST Thanks to a bit of genetic sleuthing, researchers now know the invasion history of the tropical fire ant (Solenopsis geminata), the first ant species known to travel the globe by sea.

Rust preserves fossils from early Earth Posted: 18 Feb 2015 09:28 AM PST Since life originated on Earth between 3.8 and 3.9 Ga ago, microorganisms have significantly shaped and influenced the chemistry of Earth's surface and subsurface environments. Reconstructing the evolution of early microbial life depends mainly on finding organic and mineral remnants of microbial activity preserved in the rock record. Even when microfossils are found, there are often controversies about their biological origin, since parameters that lead to a good preservation of microfossils are not well constrained.

Size matters in the battle to adapt to diverse environments, avoid extinction Posted: 18 Feb 2015 07:16 AM PST By examining research on global patterns of amphibian diversification over hundreds of millions of years, researchers have discovered that 'sexually dimorphic' species -- those in which males and females differ in size, for example -- are at lower risk of extinction and better able to adapt to diverse environments.

Dolphins set up home in the Mediterranean after the last Ice Age Posted: 18 Feb 2015 04:30 AM PST The bottlenose dolphin colonized the Mediterranean only after the last Ice Age - about 18,000 years ago – according to new research.