“Humans are very efficient biters,” concluded Stephen Wroe, a biomechanist and paleontologist at the University of New South Wales. Wroe and his colleagues used computer models of actual skulls to compare modern human jaw muscles with those of chimps, gorillas, orangutans, and the human ancestors Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus boisei, aka “the nutcracker man.” “For our size, we humans are comparable in terms of maximum bite force to these fossil species,” he added.

Aida Gomez Robles of the University of Granada thinks that the separation of modern humans and Neanderthals into different species may have happened one million years ago, or 500,000 years earlier than previously thought. She analyzed dental fossils from all the known species of hominids from different sites in Africa, Asia, and Europe, and found that “none of them has a probability higher than five percent to be the common ancestor of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Therefore, the common ancestor of this lineage is likely to have not been discovered yet,” she explained.  

In Ontario, a fisherman spotted the 4,600-year-old grave of a robust man who had been buried with a flat slab of granite and red ochre. “We’ll be taking a closer look at the stone as part of our analysis to see if we can find any evidence of function,” said Scott Hamilton of Lakehead University.  

Meet Francesco Bandarin, who will become UNESCO’s assistant director general for culture.  

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has applauded Turkey’s efforts to preserve the Byzantine port of Theodosius, discovered during the construction of a much-needed subway line connecting Istanbul’s European and Asian shores. PACE also supports the preservation of the second-century Roman thermal baths and an Asklepion in Izmir that could be flooded by the activation of the Yortanli Dam.  

Here are some more photographs of the fourth-century paintings uncovered in Rome’s catacombs of St. Tecla, dubbed the oldest-known images of the Christian apostles.  

The 123-year-old Pitt Rivers museum of ethnography and world archaeology at the University of Oxford has been refurbished, but it has not lost the charm of its “period atmosphere and eclectic collections.” Lt. Gen. Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers donated 20,000 objects to the university in 1884.  

The Peruvian Times has embarked on a series of 20 articles on the country’s history. This first article focuses on Caral, which dates to 3000 B.C., and is noted for its monumental architecture.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, June 23, 2010. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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