Word: fossilization
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Scientists have no idea what the Denisova hominin looked like or how it behaved and interacted with early modern humans, and perhaps never will without a more complete fossil record. But even the preliminary genetic analysis has already shed new light on human ancestors' exodus from Africa and subsequent spread across the globe. The dominant theory holds that various hominin species left Africa in a series of distinct migrations, beginning with Homo erectus or a close relative a little under 2 million years ago, followed by the lineage that gave rise to Neanderthals, and finally the ancestors of modern humans...
...says that because the Denisova hominin is assumed to be human, it's possible that there are many other unknown hominin fossils waiting to be discovered. He says paleontologists will continue to scour for remnants in Siberia and other northern regions, where cold weather helps preserve ancient DNA. Most early hominin fossils are from equatorial and tropical regions, where conditions for DNA survival are poor (indeed, although fossil records suggest a distinct hominin species, Homo floresiensis, co-existed with humans in Indonesia, genetic confirmation has proved elusive). (See the top 10 animal stories...
...question is, will they keep coming? Last year, advertisers, fans, teams and media spent $4.6 billion on F1's festival of fossil fuel. Six hundred million people around the world watched some part of the season on television. That's why companies such as Korean electronics conglomerate LG Group are prepared to lay out "several hundred million dollars" to have their logo plastered all over F1, says Andrew Barrett, the company's VP of global sponsorship, who recently inked such a deal. "We were looking for as broad a global reach as we could get with one sport, and nothing...
...many crimes that climate scientists have been accused of lately is that they claim absolute certainty in a field of research fraught with uncertainty. Sure, the planet is warming, say skeptics, but that's happened throughout Earth's history, long before humans were burning fossil fuels. So, how can we be sure this isn't just a natural phenomenon...
...destructive to the environment; old-growth boreal forests must be stripped away, and enormous amounts of water are polluted in the process. There are other obvious parallels to the movie, of course: producing oil-sands petroleum is expensive, and our quest for it suggests we're getting desperate for fossil fuels, the same way our future selves in Avatar have been forced to leave a wasted planet Earth in search of pricey, and presumably necessary, "unobtanium." "The tar sands in Canada are like [the forests of Pandora in] Avatar - without the blue people," says Cotel. (See the top 10 green...