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4+ hour, 51+ min ago (183+ words) We are homosapiens, but before our species walked this Earth there were many others that came before. One of those is called Homo floresiensis and they were the smallest species of ours to ever live. Experts solve the mystery of prehistoric hobbits that suddenly vanished - New archaeological research suggests that Homo floresiensis, known as "hobbits", were likely wiped out by climate change rather than the arrival of modern humans. - The study indicates that a severe drought, lasting thousands of years between 61,000 and 55,000 years ago, forced the hobbits to abandon their long-term home in Liang Bua cave on Flores island, Indonesia. - Researchers analysed cave mineral formations and fossil teeth from pygmy elephants, a key food source, revealing a significant drying trend and a steep decline in the elephant population. - The scarcity of water and food resources due to the drought is…...

5+ hour, 18+ min ago (619+ words) Scientists documented 16,600 theropod dinosaur footprints in Toro Toro, Bolivia, the largest collection worldwide. Tracks reveal behavior, herd dynamics, and swimming attempts, while human activity threatens preservation. Research continues to uncover insights into dinosaurs" lives during the late Cretaceous Toro Toro: Legend once had it that the huge, three-toed footprints scattered across the central highlands of Bolivia came from supernaturally strong monsters " capable of sinking their claws even into solid stone. Then scientists came here in the 1960s and dispelled children"s fears, determining that the strange footprints in fact belonged to gigantic, two-legged dinosaurs that stomped and splashed over 60 million years ago, in the ancient waterways of what is now Toro Toro, a village and popular national park in the Bolivian Andes. "There"s no place in the world where you have such a big abundance of (theropod) footprints," said Roberto…...

5+ hour, 33+ min ago (350+ words) Tuesday December 09, 2025 Paleontologists have documented 16,600 dinosaur footprints in Bolivia's central highlands, shedding light on the behaviour of the massive creatures that roamed the region over 60 million years ago. The footprints, located in and around the village and national park of Toro Toro in the Bolivian Andes, belong to theropods " the two-legged dinosaur group that includes Tyrannosaurus rex." The study, conducted over six years mainly by researchers from California's Loma Linda University and published in PLOS One on Wednesday, marks the largest collection of theropod footprints ever recorded globally. "There's no other site in the world with such an abundance of theropod tracks," said Roberto Biaggi, co-author of the study led by Spanish paleontologist Ra'l Esperante. The preserved prints reveal a range of dinosaur behavior, including attempts to swim. Scientists identified 1,378 marks showing claws scratching soft lake-bottom sediment just before rising…...

6+ hour, 54+ min ago (447+ words) Previous research linked disappearance of small-brained species to arrival of modern humans Archaeologists have found compelling evidence that the early humans who inhabited the Indonesian island of Flores were wiped out by climate change. Homo floresiensis, dubbed the "hobbits" for their short stature, were first discovered in 2003 at the Liang Bua cave site on Flores. The small-brained, small-statured species, just about 3.5ft tall, likely lived on the island as recently as 50,000 years ago, but then mysteriously vanished. Previous research suggested their disappearance coincided with the arrival of modern humans in Southeast Asia and Australia. Now, an international team of archaeologists has uncovered key evidence challenging this theory, finding that the hobbits were likely wiped out by a severe drought on their island. Their study reveals the hobbits abandoned the Liang Bua cave, which they had occupied for around 140,000 years, during a…...

7+ hour, 10+ min ago (585+ words) TORO TORO, Bolivia -- Legend once had it that the huge, three-toed footprints scattered across the central highlands of Bolivia came from supernaturally strong monsters " capable of sinking their claws even into solid stone. Then scientists came here in the 1960s and dispelled children's fears, determining that the strange footprints in fact belonged to gigantic, two-legged dinosaurs that stomped and splashed over 60 million years ago, in the ancient waterways of what is now Toro Toro, a village and popular national park in the Bolivian Andes. "There's no place in the world where you have such a big abundance of (theropod) footprints," said Roberto Biaggi, a co-author of the study led by Spanish paleontologist Ra'l Esperante. "We have all these world records at this particular site." The dinosaurs that ruled the earth and roamed this region also made awkward attempts to swim here,…...

7+ hour, 19+ min ago (554+ words) Then scientists came here in the 1960s and dispelled children's fears, determining that the strange footprints in fact belonged to gigantic, two-legged dinosaurs that stomped and splashed over 60 million years ago, in the ancient waterways of what is now Toro Toro, a village and popular national park in the Bolivian Andes. "There's no place in the world where you have such a big abundance of (theropod) footprints," said Roberto Biaggi, a co-author of the study led by Spanish paleontologist Ra'l Esperante. "We have all these world records at this particular site." The dinosaurs that ruled the earth and roamed this region also made awkward attempts to swim here, according to the study, scratching at what was squishy lake-bottom sediment to leave another 1,378 traces. They pressed their claws into the mud just before water levels rose and sealed their tracks, protecting them…...

7+ hour, 19+ min ago (554+ words) Then scientists came here in the 1960s and dispelled children's fears, determining that the strange footprints in fact belonged to gigantic, two-legged dinosaurs that stomped and splashed over 60 million years ago, in the ancient waterways of what is now Toro Toro, a village and popular national park in the Bolivian Andes. "There's no place in the world where you have such a big abundance of (theropod) footprints," said Roberto Biaggi, a co-author of the study led by Spanish paleontologist Ra'l Esperante. "We have all these world records at this particular site." The dinosaurs that ruled the earth and roamed this region also made awkward attempts to swim here, according to the study, scratching at what was squishy lake-bottom sediment to leave another 1,378 traces. They pressed their claws into the mud just before water levels rose and sealed their tracks, protecting them…...

7+ hour, 19+ min ago (551+ words) Then scientists came here in the 1960s and dispelled children's fears, determining that the strange footprints in fact belonged to gigantic, two-legged dinosaurs that stomped and splashed over 60 million years ago, in the ancient waterways of what is now Toro Toro, a village and popular national park in the Bolivian Andes. "There's no place in the world where you have such a big abundance of (theropod) footprints," said Roberto Biaggi, a co-author of the study led by Spanish paleontologist Ra'l Esperante. "We have all these world records at this particular site." The dinosaurs that ruled the earth and roamed this region also made awkward attempts to swim here, according to the study, scratching at what was squishy lake-bottom sediment to leave another 1,378 traces. They pressed their claws into the mud just before water levels rose and sealed their tracks, protecting them…...

8+ hour, 13+ min ago (999+ words) Scientists say they have solved the mystery of the Burtele foot, a set of 3.4 million-year-old bones found in Ethiopia in 2009. The fossils, along with others unearthed more recently, have now been linked to a little-known species that was a contemporary of the celebrated Australopithecus afarensis skeleton Lucy. The foot bones and a jawbone with teeth still attached belonged to an ancient human relative called Australopithecus deyiremeda, a more primitive species than Lucy, according to a study published Nov. 26 in the journal Nature. Should they hold up to further scrutiny, the findings could knock Lucy, one of the most recognizable names in human evolution, from her important spot in the family tree. In 2009, a team led by paleoanthropologist Yohannes Haile-Selassie, a professor at Arizona State University and the study's lead author, found the eight foot bones within 3.4 million-year-old sediments at the…...

10+ hour, 48+ min ago (315+ words) Eight meter-long "megapredator" sharks patrolled Australian seas 115 million years ago Eight-meter-long sharks (illustrated here) patrolled the sea that later became Darwin, Australia. The predators shared their ecosystem with huge reptilian marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs. Some 115 million years ago, a veritable fleet of giant predators prowled the waters near Australia. There were long-necked plesiosaurs, snaggletoothed pliosaurs with massive heads, dolphinlike ichthyosaurs, and now " suggests new fossil findings " 8-meter-long sharks." The findings, published October 25 in Communications Biology, push back the age of the earliest giant lamniform sharks " kin to great whites and Otodus megalodon " by 15 million years." "These sharks were serious contenders, playing the role of apex predators alongside dominant megafauna such as marine reptiles," says Mohamad Bazzi, an evolutionary biologist at Stanford University.Such reptilian leviathans were previously considered the "sole sovereigns" of their aquatic domains, Bazzi says....