As Woolly Mammoths trekked across Alaska thousands of years ago, hunter-gatherers followed their every step. New research on the journey of a 14,000-year-old mammoth named Élmayųujey’eh — Elma, for short — has further illustrated the travels of beast and human alike throughout this prehistoric expanse.Researchers at the Alaska Stable Isotope Facility learned of Elma’s odyssey by analyzing isotopes from her tusk, which was first identified in 2009 at the Swan Point archaeological site i ...read more
Few things in the universe compare to the mystifying reputation of black holes, and a special one of these gravitational titans has just been recognized as the oldest among them all.An international research team led by the University of Cambridge has detected the oldest known black hole through the James Webb Space Telescope. Its appearance more than 13 billion years ago — 400 million years after the big bang — has twisted traditional beliefs about black hole formation and growth. The resul ...read more
Most settings in everyday life seem ordinary — your house, the office, a local restaurant you frequent after work. You never truly know, though, the entire history that surrounds the environments you visit. Archaeological rarities occasionally hide in the soil beneath these places, even popping up in people’s backyards. Many of these artifacts strewn across the world are at risk of being lost to time, but there is a way they can be saved. Construction, climate change, and conflicts summon a ...read more
Did you know that whales express emotional loss? Or that they use distinctive clicking sounds to identify and recognize other whales, as we would use a name? Experts link their intelligence to their large brain size, but a big brain isn’t the only thing that makes these marine mammals so special. They have characteristics that show advanced levels of intelligence, including reasoning, problem-solving, and strong memory skills.What Types of Animals are Whales?Whales are cetaceans, as are por ...read more
The mighty megalodon keeps its crown as one of the largest sharks to have ever lived. It was an apex predator of prehistory, reigning the seas and raining teeth on ocean floors, until its ultimate extinction around a couple million years ago.Despite having died out far before any of our lifetimes, megalodons manage to live on, swimming and zipping through the depths of our fantastical imaginations. Here’s what to know about this ancient superpredator, who dwarfs today’s great whites and kill ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine