Oyster shells excavated from an abandoned seventeenth-century well in Jamestown, Virginia, reveal that the English settlers who lived there endured a long-lasting drought. “It was interesting trying to figure out what was happening in the colony at a time when 70 to 80 percent of the colonists were dying,” said geochemist Howard Spero of the […]

Rock art specialists are trying to determine if a red ochre painting depicts the emu or the genyornis, which died out 40,000 years ago. If the bird is a genyornis, “it would … more than double the potential age of painted rock art in Australia,” said scientist Robert Gunn.  “We need to excavate the site next […]