Latest news with #Neanderthal
Tom's Guide
3 hours ago
- Health
- Tom's Guide
Bed bugs have ruined our sleep for 60,000 years, new research reveals — 5 ways to keep them out of your mattress
Sleep is the great unifier and while our ancient ancestors didn't have to worry about excess screen time and bed rot, we do have at least one sleep disruptor in common: bed bugs. New research suggests that bed bugs are the earliest human pests, following us out of the caves roughly 60,000 years ago and booming as our population expanded into cities. And we haven't been able to shake them since. Researchers from Virginia Tech have been tracing the history of bed bugs back to a subset of the species detaching itself from bats and choosing humanity as their favorite food source. While the Last Glacial Maximum around 20,000 years ago (the ice age) saw a decline in the general bed bug population, the human-associated bed bugs bounced back. Sadly — or, perhaps, happily — the bat-following bed bugs haven't fared quite so well. And it turns out our oldest pests have weathered a lot to continue bothering us, thriving as we established cities, rejoicing as the population expanded and even surviving the emergence of powerful pesticides. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. So is there anything we can do to actually get rid of bed bugs? On a global scale, it seems unlikely. They're incredibly hardy and we clearly taste incredible. In your own home? That's a different story and if the past 60,000 years have been good for anything it's developing new, effective ways to remove bed bugs. The best mattresses you can buy online are undoubtedly better for your sleep than a Neanderthal bed (cavemen didn't even have Phase Change Material) but they are still vulnerable to bed bugs. However, with these tips you can keep bed bugs from infesting your mattress. One of the most effective ways to get rid of bed bugs at home is with a hot wash — bed bugs are not a fan of excessive high temperatures. We recommend washing your bedding once a week to prevent stains and this regular cleaning schedule can also prevent an outbreak of bed bugs before it gets started. Use a 140°F wash for a minimum of 90 minutes and follow up with either a hot dry cycle or a few hours in direct sunlight to eradicate bed bugs and their eggs. And when your sheets are drying, leave your mattress bare to allow it to breathe. This air flow helps trapped moisture dissipate and clears the enticing scent of you that attracts bed bugs to your mattress. Bed bugs are consummate hiders: they're tiny, fast and love the dark. That means the seams and crevices of your mattress are perfect bed bug homes. But the piles of laundry lying around your bed are equally attractive hideouts. If you want to limit the areas for bed bugs to lurk, keep the space around your bed clean. Just think, if Grug had only tidied his mammoth skin tunic away, we might not have to think about bed bugs at all... It's a common misconception that bed bugs are attracted to mess. They're just as happy in a clean mattress as a dirty one. However, keeping your bed clean does help you avoid bed bugs. Vacuuming your mattress can remove visible bed bugs as well as other pests and allergens that might be lurking in your bed. A thorough vacuum also presents an opportunity to check for bed bugs. As mentioned, they're exceptionally good at hiding which means you might not be aware of a problem until it's a full blown infestation. So when vacuuming keep an eye out for common signs of bed bugs, such as red or brown stains, eggs or discarded shell cases in the seams. Bed bugs have followed humans as we've spread across the globe — they're one of our most reliable travel companions. If you've been subject to a bed bug outbreak at home, there's a good chance they're an unwelcome souvenir from a trip away. You can avoid bringing bed bugs home with you by being alert, checking new beds for signs of pests and washing your clothing as soon as you get home. Research suggests that the creation of chemical pest control DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) contributed to a massive crash in bed bug population but it quickly bounced back (...yay.) However, there are chemical bed bug killers such as CrossFire that have proved effective at eradicating an outbreak, while diatomaceous earth is commonly used as pest control. Other preventative tools such as bed bug glue traps can help you stop bed bugs as they make their way to your mattress. But for a serious infestation, it might be time to call in the professionals. Otherwise, here's to another 60,000 years hand in hand with bed bugs.
Mint
a day ago
- Science
- Mint
What does this mysterious 43,000-year-old red dot hint at? Scientists discover the ‘oldest fingerprint' by Neanderthals
Researchers in Spain may have found one of the oldest symbolic objects with a human fingerprint ever recorded in Europe. The small pebble, discovered in the San Lazaro rock shelter in Segovia, could be linked to Neanderthals. Experts believe this shows that Neanderthals may have created symbolic art, like cave paintings. The pebble was found under 1.5 metres of soil during a 2022 excavation. Forensic experts helped study the print. This discovery supports the idea that Neanderthals, who lived over 40,000 years ago, were more like modern humans than we used to believe. Scientists now believe Neanderthals had more imagination than once thought. The pebble with red ochre suggests they could see faces in objects, much like we see shapes in clouds. This shows they may have had symbolic thinking. Experts say the gap between modern humans and Neanderthals is getting smaller. Forensic tools will now help find more hidden clues from the past. 'When we saw (the pebble) the first time … we were looking at the stone, all the team and students, and we were like 'Uh, it looks like a face,'' CNN quoted study coauthor Maria de Andres Herrero as saying. A team led by Herrero found the 43,000-year-old ancient fingerprint on a pebble, likely left by a Neanderthal. It had no clear use but had a strange red dot. Curious, Herrero contacted fingerprint experts from Madrid police. Though doubtful at first, the forensic team confirmed a fingerprint using special cameras and multispectral analysis. It was the first time such modern techniques helped identify a Neanderthal print. This find was surprising even for the experts. They usually work with prints only days or weeks old, not thousands of years. This may be the oldest full fingerprint from an early human ever discovered. The fingerprint had red ocher pigment on it, showing the person might have used the colour on purpose. Experts say the mark was made intentionally, not by accident. This print could also be the oldest one linked to the use of pigment. The hollows may look like a human face with eyes, mouth and chin. The red dot could mark the nose. Researchers believe this pebble might carry a symbolic message. 'A meaning or message exists, however simple the object and action may appear,' the study says.
Gizmodo
a day ago
- General
- Gizmodo
Did a Neanderthal Spot a Face in This Rock 43,000 Years Ago—and Leave a Fingerprint Behind?
While digging inside a cave in the Spanish city of Segovia, archaeologists uncovered an unusual rock. The hand-sized stone naturally resembled an elongated face, and featured a spot of red pigment made from ochre right on the tip of what may be considered its nose. 'We were all thinking the same thing and looking at each other because of its shape: we were all thinking, 'This looks like a face,'' David Álvarez Alonso, an archaeologist at Complutense University in Madrid who was part of the dig, told The Guardian. Álvarez Alonso and his colleagues spent the next three years studying this bizarre rock. The researchers posit that 43,000 years ago, a Neanderthal dipped their finger in ochre and pressed it onto the stone's central ridge—leaving behind what is now considered to be the world's oldest complete human fingerprint. It's an intriguing finding that could have significant implications, but some experts would like to see more evidence to support this hypothesis. The team published its findings in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences on Saturday, May 24. In the paper, the archaeologists state that the 'strategic position' of the dot suggests it is evidence of Neanderthals' 'symbolic behavior.' In other words, it's a piece of art that 'could represent one of the earliest human face symbolizations in prehistory.' 'The fact that the [rock] was selected because of its appearance and then marked with ochre shows that there was a human mind capable of symbolizing, imagining, idealizing and projecting his or her thoughts on an object,' the researchers write. Whether Neanderthals were capable of making art is a subject of ongoing debate, co-author María de Andrés-Herrero, a professor of prehistory at Complutense University, told the BBC. But over the past decade, a growing body of evidence has led many experts to believe that artistic expression emerged earlier in human evolution than previously thought. The authors of this new study think their stone adds to this evidence. To reach this conclusion, they first needed more data to support the idea that this ancient artist had actually experienced pareidolia: seeing a face in an inanimate object. To that end, they generated a 3D model of the stone's surface and measured the distances between its features, finding that the red dot—or nose—was placed such that it accurately resembled an actual nose on a human face. Then, the researchers enlisted the help of geologists to characterize the red dot, confirming that it was made with ochre. Forensic police experts then used multispectral analysis—a technique that can reveal details invisible to the naked eye—to confirm that the red dot had been applied with a fingertip. Their analysis uncovered a fingerprint that could have belonged to an adult male Neanderthal inside the dot. 'Once we had that and all the other pieces, context and information, we advanced the theory that this could be a pareidolia, which then led to a human intervention in the form of the red dot,' Álvarez Alonso told The Guardian. 'Without that red dot, you can't make any claims about the object.' But Gilliane Monnier, a professor of anthropology at the University of Minnesota who studies Neanderthal behavior, is not totally convinced by the researchers' findings. 'The fact that there are these natural depressions—and that we can measure the distance between them and argue that it's a face—that's all well and good,' Monnier, who wasn't involved in the study, told Gizmodo. 'But that doesn't give us any indication that the Neanderthals who [occupied this cave] saw a face in that [rock].' What's more, she is skeptical of the researchers' claim that the red dot was actually made with a human fingertip. It's possible, she said, that the coloring and fingerprint-like ridges formed naturally. 'I would be interested in seeing an explanation by a geologist—someone trained in geology—saying the likelihood of this forming by natural, geological or geomicrobial processes is a very low likelihood,' Monnier said. The researchers, too, acknowledge that 'it is unlikely that all doubts surrounding this hypothesis can be fully dispelled,' and state that the pareidolia hypothesis should not be seen as a definitive claim, but rather a possible explanation for this object based on the evidence. So it's hard to say whether this study clarifies or complicates our understanding of how the human mind evolved the ability to create art. The face-shaped rock is an intriguing piece of the puzzle, but more research is needed to figure out where it fits.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Farmers Dug Up a 300,000-Year-Old Skull. It's Unlike Any Human Ancestor We've Ever Seen.
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: The fragmented Maba 1 skull, which had previously been described as belonging to a Neanderthal, is not so Neanderthal after all. Researchers reassessed the skull and found resemblances to Homo erectus, Neanderthals, and Homo sapiens, but it didn't exactly fit into any of these species. It is most similar to other debatable hominin specimens. Maba 1 also suffered trauma before death, but the specific cause of the trauma remains unknown. In 1958, in a narrow trench of an eroded limestone cave near Maba Village in Shaoguan City, China, local farmers were digging up bat guano for fertilizer when they came across something unusual. Fossilized fragments of bone surfaced that looked somewhat human, and were later determined to be part of a skull (and several facial bones). But which of our ancestors this skull belonged to has remained a mystery. At a glance, Maba 1 seems like any other skull fragment—and that is the whole problem. Because no other parts of the skull were ever found, it was nearly impossible to positively identify the fragment as having come from a particular species of hominin. The only thing researchers knew for certain is that the bone dates back to the late Middle Pleistocene and is about 300,000 years old. While it had previously been determined to belong to a Neanderthal, a team of researchers who previously studied the skull have now reevaluated it and found contradictory features that aredifficult to ignore. '[Maba 1] is well-known for the Neanderthal-like face, while its neurocranium shows affinities with many hominin taxa, which makes the taxonomic status of Maba 1 controversial,' they wrote in a study recently published in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology. Until now, the skull fragments had been observed externally, but much about their internal structures was still unknown. So, the skull was reconstructed using data from micro-CT scans, which can image the inside of a fossil without damaging the actual specimen. The scans made one thing very clear: the skull probably wasn't from a Neanderthal. Channels in the sinuses that veins once used to ferry blood through spongy diploid bone were connected to the parietal foramen towards the back of the skull by tubular structures—a very rare occurence in Homo neandertalensis. The inside of the skull's frontal lobe turned out to be morphologically closer to Homo erectus than Neanderthals or Homo sapiens (though Homo erectus had a smaller brain than its two counterparts), and the cranial capacity of Maba 1 was more like that of Neanderthals and modern humans. But while the researchers agreed that Maba 1 seemed closest to H. erectus, differences from the morphological standards of the species were too obvious to ignore. The frontal lobe was short in comparison, and the bregma—where the coronal (lengthwise) and sagittal (crosswise and perpendicular to the coronal) sutures meet—was thicker than that of H. erectus. Maba 1 also shows signs of trauma—a dark, semicircular lesion on the external right side of the frontal bone, which spans the area from the middle of the head to the bridge of the nose. Signs of healing suggest that the individual suffered this injury while still alive, though it is unclear whether the lesion healed completely and what exactly caused it. There were no signs of infection. While it could have been left behind by an impact such as a fall, it is also possible that such a lesion was the result of anemia, or even a tumor. Strangely enough, the researchers concluded that Maba 1 is more similar to other debatable hominin skulls, such as the LH18 specimen found in Tanzania, which is thought to be an early Homo sapiens skull. There are also resemblances to the Djebel Irhoud skulls from Morocco (first assumed to be Neanderthal remains but now thought to be from some of the earliest known Homo sapiens) and Zambia's Broken Hill skull (a Homo heidelbergensis specimen now at the Natural History Museum in London). 'The internal structures of Maba 1 show a combination of morphological features found in various species,' the researchers concluded. 'These findings further evidence the high morphological variability among Asian hominins in the late Middle Pleistocene. Maba 1 currently cannot be definitely classified in any known hominin taxon.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- Science
- The Herald Scotland
Pebble with finger print suggests Neanderthal may have created art
The quartz-rich granite pebble included indentations resembling a face, its nose a Rudolph-like red dot visible at center. Significantly, the spot didn't appear to be random, instead bearing evidence indicating it was the product of someone's imagination. "The ocher dot does not appear as a shapeless addition or a mere stain," wrote lead author David Alvarez-Alonso of Madrid's Complutense University. "Rather, it contains a fingerprint that implies the pigment has been applied specifically with the tip of a finger soaked in pigment." The authors consider the artifact a nonutilitarian visual symbol - in other words, not a tool but an altered or marked object with possible symbolic significance. While its age makes it impossible to draw any definitive conclusions, they wrote, the stone could "represent one of the oldest known abstractions of a human face in the prehistoric record." ????Hemos resuelto un caso de 43.000 anos de antiguedad Se trata de la????huella dactilar mas antigua del mundo y nuestra Policia Cientifica ha logrado el hito de su identificacion por procedimientos no invasivos de teledeteccion junto a la @unicomplutense Ha sido fundamental el... — Policia Nacional (@policia) May 27, 2025 "The fact that the pebble was selected because of its appearance and then marked with ocher shows that there was a human mind capable of symbolizing, imagining, idealizing and projecting his or her thoughts on an object," they wrote. An expanding Neanderthal portfolio This isn't the first time a Neanderthal fingerprint has been pinpointed, the authors noted. A partial one, likely made by a thumb, was found on resin discovered in Germany in 1963. However, the discovery offers yet another dab of evidence suggesting that Neanderthals made art. In 2018, The Guardian reported archaeological findings in Spain indicating that Neanderthals used red ocher to produce shapes and symbols on cave walls 65,000 years ago. The species flourished from roughly 350,000 to 40,000 years ago, and studies indicate they and modern humans may have gone their separate ways as long as 800,000 years ago. Increasing evidence has indicated that Neanderthals were more advanced than once thought. In 2020, a paper published in the journal Science said evidence found in a coastal cave in Portugal suggested Neanderthals were skilled fishermen who regularly consumed seafood as part of their diet. Until then, only humans (Homo sapiens) had been thought to look to the sea as a food source. Meanwhile, the discovery of 176,000-year-old structures deep within a French cave hinted at Neanderthals' ability to use fire and work in groups. A 2016 article in Nature described strange, circular edifices constructed in an interior space 360 yards removed from daylight; the formations were made from uniform stalagmites, many of them cut to size. With the earliest known human-built structures 40,000 years old, the cave formations not only predate such activity by Homo sapiens but also show Neanderthal utilization of deep caves began much earlier as well. According to the study, the earliest indications of modern humans using deep caves are less than 42,000 years old.
