A circle of ancient megaliths that has been discovered in the jungle of the Amazon has been challenging the long-held assumption by archaeologists that the inhabitants there were simply tribes of hunter-gatherers. The granite stones, first uncovered in the 1990s, have recently been found to have functioned as an astronomical observatory, much like its more famous sister site, Stonehenge.
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The levels of carbon dioxide found in the atmosphere in modern times have been found to be nearly ten times higher than any other time since the extinction of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago. The event that came the closest to today’s CO2 levels, the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), occurred 55.5 million years ago, where a spike in greenhouse gasses caused global temperatures to increase by 5–8 °C over what we’re experiencing today. While the existence and cause of the PETM is well established, the source of the massive amount of CO2 that caused the temperature spike has been a complete mystery to scientists.read more

Archaeologists have announced the discovery of a 50,000-year-old sewing needle, made from bone, that was excavated from a cave in Siberia’s Altai Mountains. This well-preserved sewing implement sports a hole for guiding the thread, and is still appears to be sharp enough to be used today. This artifact, however, has an unusual distinction, in that it is suspected that it was not crafted by a human hand.
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