A new study suggests that the Gulf Stream – an Atlantic Ocean current that plays a large role in shaping Earth’s weather patterns – is weaker now than at any point in the last 1,000 years. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/gulf-stream-atlantic-weakest-in-over-1000-years…
Tag: ice age
What’s the coldest Earth has ever been?
Our planet’s history includes episodes of cold so extreme that glaciers reached sea level in equatorial regions. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/whats-coldest-earth-has-ever-been…
‘Ice age’ horse skeleton found in Utah backyard isn’t what we thought
The skeletal remains of a horse unearthed in Utah thought to date to the last ice age are actually much younger. Source: https://www.livescience.com/utah-horse-native-americans.html
New evidence for multiple ice ages on Mars
Earth has had at least 5 major ice ages. Now it appears Mars – the next planet outward from the sun – has undergone anywhere from half a dozen to 20 ice ages in the past several hundred million years. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/new-evidence-for-multiple-ice-ages-on-mars…
Dog Domestication May Have Begun Because Paleo Humans Couldn’t Stomach the Original Paleo Diet
A new theory described today in Scientific Reports posits that hunter-gatherers whose omnivorous digestive system prevented too much protein consumption likely shared surplus meat with wolves. Those scraps may have initiated a step toward domestication. Scientific American reports: [Maria Lahtinen, a senior researcher at the Finnish Food Authority and a visiting scholar at the Finnish Museum of Natural History] did not…
Clovis made stone tools for only around 300 years
The Clovis, some of North America’s earliest inhabitants, only made stone tools during a brief 300-year period from 13,050 to 12,750 years ago, new research shows. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/clovis-stone-tools-300-years…
Social life of extinct sabre-toothed cat revealed by ancient DNA
Homotherium, a sabre-toothed cat that lived in the Americas and Eurasia during the most recent ice age, was a swift and social predator, according to its genes Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2257509-social-life-of-extinct-sabre-toothed-cat-revealed-by-ancient-dna/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Fossils of Ice Age manatees discovered in Texas
Ice Age manatees either summered in Texas or lived there year-round, raising new questions about the environment off the coast of the Lone Star State during the Pleistocene. Source: https://www.livescience.com/ice-age-manatees-texas-coast.html
Greenland’s Ice Melting Faster Than At Any Time In Past 12,000 Years
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Greenland’s ice is starting to melt faster than at any time in the past 12,000 years, research has shown, which will raise sea levels and could have a marked impact on ocean currents. New measurements show the rate of melting matches any in the geological record for the Holocene period — defined…
Britain’s oldest artwork may depict mammoths from a drowned land
Britain’s oldest artworks have been unearthed on the Channel Island of Jersey, showing what apperar to be Ice Age scenes of mammoths in ancient lands now drowned by the sea. Source: https://www.livescience.com/oldest-artwork-britain.html