Trillions of stone artifacts cover the surface of the African continent. The product of the manufacturing of stone tools by hunters and gathers over long periods of time, these stone artifacts literally carpet the ground in some places in Egypt and Libya. Just how much Stone-Age produced rock could be strewn across the African continent? Trillions and trillions... Continue Reading →
From a net pulled out of the ocean doesn't seem a likely place to find an ancient human fossil. But by scraping the bottom of the ocean,Taiwanese fishermen have been pulling up all sorts of unusual items in addition to their targeted prey. Like some trawlers off the cost of Great Britain these fishermen have... Continue Reading →
The physical and spiritual status of Neanderthals has been hotly debated since the first fossilize of bones were described from Neander Valley in Germany in 1856. Since that time bones from more than 400 Neanderthal individuals have been recovered over a large geographical range (fig 1). Hundreds of published studies on these bones, artifacts... Continue Reading →
The landscape of science and faith discussions within conservative evangelical Christianity has shifted noticeably over the past 20 years. Vigorous debates over the meaning of the day of creation in Genesis 1 were common in the 1990s, resulting in study committee reports from conservative denominations like the Presbyterian Church in America, “Report of the Creation Study Committee”... Continue Reading →
Hundreds of millions and possibly billions of stone artifacts sit just under parking lots and homes in Kathu, South Africa. A small sample of those artifacts were examined a few years ago in a vacant lot scheduled to be developed into a shopping plaza. A simple trench and pits dug in that lot revealed a... Continue Reading →
A small chamber in a deep, dark cave. Tens of thousands of bones. Animal bones and human bones. Buried under dust and dirt and bat dung. Welcome to an ancient chamber of horrors. This is the Pit of Bones (aka Sima de los Huesos). In 1997, scientists discovered this small chamber within a much larger... Continue Reading →
During the last ice age some 12 to 13 thousands years ago a young girl found herself wandering in caves of the Yucatan Peninsula likely looking for water. Hundreds of feet into a cave something happened and she fell in a deep pit breaking her pelvis. With no escape 100 feet down she died a lonely death. She... Continue Reading →
Last week I pointed out that the Bible provides no support for Ken Ham's contention that massive numbers of species have formed following their departure from Noah's ark 4500 years ago (YEC Biblical Evolution: I Have A Book That Says Otherwise). Now I'm following up with "observational" evidence from DNA sequences to test whether the... Continue Reading →
A story is breaking today of a significant fossil find made almost a year ago but kept under wraps until the data could be properly evaluated. What has now been revealed is that over 100 footprints were found in newly uncovered rocks along a shoreline of England. Study of these footprints has led to... Continue Reading →
Imagine trawling for fish and when you pull up your nets you find a massive bone or a huge tooth along with your catch. For over 100 years fishermen in the North Sea between Britain and Denmark have found such items in their nets but it wasn’t until the 1980s that their value, monetarily and... Continue Reading →
Down a 43 foot vertical shaft, another 40 foot slope, and buried under thousands of cave bear, lion and lynx bones, lies the partially fossilized bones of at least 30 individual humans. Welcome to a chamber of horrors otherwise known as Sima de los Huesos (the pit of bones). This pit is but a small... Continue Reading →
The process of discovery in science can be as fascinating to follow as a sporting event: if we knew how it was going to end we would be much less likely to watch. The Rising Star Expedition has the drama but not the finality, fortunately!, of a sporting event where there is a final score. ... Continue Reading →
Update (Nov 2013): Please be aware this article was written as a first impressions of an ongoing expedition as an outsider onlooker. I updated this information (Rising Star Update) as more data came to light a few weeks later. It now seems fairly clear that this location will become a significant one in the study of... Continue Reading →
A new hominid skull find is making news today. The headlines are predictable over-dramatic but the skull nonetheless is quite impressive in its state of preservation. I don’t have time for a detailed report of this find but I have read the paper (Lordkipanize et al. 2013 see references) and several other papers about this... Continue Reading →
A recently published study is making news the last couple of days. It regards evidence obtained from remains of preserved bones of human scavenging and/or hunting practices. The site of the dig is a hillside in southern Kenya where, in less than an acre, more than 3700 fossils and more than 2000 artifacts have been recovered... Continue Reading →
Naturalis Historia 