Razib Khan

Gene Expression

The Mysterious Other

A scientist de-feathers a bird as part of an experiment to recreate Neanderthal small-game cooking techniques(Credit: Mariana Nabais)


 A scientist de-feathers a bird as part of an experiment to recreate Neanderthal cooking techniques

Scientists replicate Paleolithic butchering and cooking techniques based on archeological evidence.

Anthropologists Discover Neanderthal Butchering and Cooking Techniques

A 3D paleoartistic reconstruction of an ancient butchery event, created using digital modeling and texturing techniques based on fossil evidence. (Credit: Damián Voglino, Museo de Ciencias Naturales A. Scasso (Colegio Don Bosco), San Nicolás de los Arroyos, Provincia de Buenos Aires, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/))


3D rendering of a prehistoric butchery event featuring three early humans processing a large animal carcass in a grassy landscape

Human interaction with megafauna at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch may have contributed to some mammalian extinctions.

Giant Armadillo Butchers Push Back Human Arrival Time in South America 

Painting of a griffin, a lion-raptor chimera, alongside the fossils of Protoceratops, a horned dinosaur. The latter are said to have informed the lore and appearance of the former, but a study suggests that there is no compelling connection between dinosaurs and griffins. (Credit: Mark Witton)


Griffin Myth Illustration

Paleontologists challenge notion that the fantastical chimeric beast of ancient folklore was inspired by dinosaur fossils.

Mythology Busters Debunk That Dinosaurs Inspired Ancient Griffin Folklore

Tikal Temple

Blood-letting, offerings of various objects, and other rituals defined the life of the ancient Maya people, who worked to satisfy a reciprocal relationship with their gods.

The Ancient Maya Appeased Their Gods With Sacred Offerings 

Duveau Le Rozel site

Footprints made 80,000 years ago and ancient DNA are among the clues that hint at Neanderthals’ social and community lives.

How an Ancient Human Species Formed Family Ties

(Credit: Sharan Prasad Anumolu/Shutterstock) 

machu picchu

The discovery of some “lost” cities could have given explorers hope they’d find unknown places like El Dorado. 

The Mysterious Other

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