To animals unfortunate enough to fall in, it was a death trap. To palaeontologists, it was a sensational discovery. Now the first detailed analysis of a spectacular cache of fossilised prehistoric "marsupial lions", giant wombats and kangaroos, owls and parrots discovered in a cave in Australia suggests that humans killed off the continent's ( Read more... )

Learning how to live off the sea may have played a key role in the expansion of early humans around the globe.

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Bones and tusks dating back 400,000 years are the earliest signs in Britain of ancient humans butchering elephants for meat, say archaeologists.

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Ann Parson, for National Geographic News, January 25, 2006

Through the years dozens of theories have sprung up about why Neandertals (often spelled "Neanderthals") went extinct approximately 30,000 years ago.Those heavy-browed, big-boned hominids who inhabited Europe and parts of Asia for roughly 200,000 years may have met their demise for any ( Read more... )

Brian Handwerk, for National Geographic News, January 24, 2006

Pennsylvania hunters hoping to stalk deer with Stone Age spear- throwers may get their chance later this year. Today the state's game commission gave preliminary approval for hunting deer hunting using the atlatl and dart.The ancient weapon uses a throwing stick to propel spearlike ( Read more... )