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The grasslands, glaciers and snow-capped peaks of the Tibetan Plateau are breathtaking, but the vast expanse of Central Asia is also one of the harshest environments on Earth.
When I traveled to the plateau three decades ago, my head was pounding and I was sluggish from altitude sickness.
Archaeologists have long believed that the Tibetan Plateau – more than 13,000 feet (about 4,000 meters) above sea level – was one of the last places on the planet to be colonized.
But new research suggests that a mysterious species of ancient humans was able to thrive on the so-called roof of the world long before Homo sapiens, our own species, arrived on the scene.
We are family
Researchers first identified the Denisovans in 2010, using DNA sequences extracted from a rare small fragment of finger bone found in Siberia.
Now, the Baishiya Karst Cave in the far northeast of the Tibetan Plateau is helping to answer many questions about who the Denisovans were.
Archaeologists examined a jaw and a rib found at the cave site, along with thousands of animal bone fragments recovered during excavations in 2018 and 2019.
The analysis is clarifying how extinct humans thrived in the ice age environment for more than 100,000 years.
Lunar update
With the return of the Chang’e-6 lunar mission on June 25, the Chinese government has something that no other human being has found: rocks and soil from the other side of the Moon.
The China National Space Administration said it will again share its lunar samples with scientists around the world – following the precedent set by NASA after the Apollo missions.
But a U.S. law known as the Wolf Amendment, which prohibits NASA from using government funds for bilateral cooperation with China or its agencies without authorization from Congress or the FBI, could impede U.S. access to the samples.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told CNN this week that the federal agency was working to ensure that accessing lunar soil samples would not violate the law. Results from sample analysis could help scientists examine the early days of the Moon, Earth and solar system.
A long time ago
Take a moment to marvel at what researchers say is the world’s oldest known story. Painted on the wall of a cave in what is now Indonesia, it depicts three humans interacting with a pig.
The research team used a new technique to date the calcium carbonate crust that formed along the art to more than 50,000 years old.
The discovery is the latest rock art found in the region’s intriguing limestone caves and is at least 33,000 years older than Europe’s famous Paleolithic sites such as Lascaux.
Some experts think the paintings could have been a visual complement to oral histories lost to time.
Explorations
Rivers often change course as they flow. But a research team studying the Ganges, which snakes from the Himalayas through India and Bangladesh, has found evidence of something much more dramatic in its ancient past.
From clues hidden in the mud and grains of sand, scientists concluded that a powerful earthquake redirected the river 2,500 years ago – the first time this natural phenomenon had been detected.
The team found sand volcanoes – a hallmark of a riverbed affected by an earthquake – and a large river channel that filled with mud almost at the same time.
If a similar earthquake were to happen in the Ganges Delta today, more than 140 million people in the area could be affected.
wild kingdom
Entomologist Dr. Gerard Talavera found 10 painted butterflies on a beach about a decade ago in French Guiana. With torn wings full of holes, the insects looked worn out.
Although a painted lady is a hardy long-distance traveler, with migration patterns that span thousands of miles, she usually travels overland so she can stop and rest.
Talavera, a senior researcher at the Barcelona Botanical Institute in Spain, suspected that the butterflies had crossed the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. In a new study, he and an international team We gathered what it took to make such an epic journey.
In other insect news, researchers have detected ants amputating the infected limbs of injured nestmates.
The wonder
Explore these thought-provoking reads.
– O the rotation of the Earth’s core has slowed in recent decades, a recent study confirmed. Here’s what that might mean.
— Paleontologists have discovered fossils of a giant swamp creature with skull shaped like a toilet seat this was probably a large predator 40 million years before dinosaurs appeared on Earth.
— The discovery of fossilized grape seeds revealed why you have the death of dinosaurs to thank for your glass of red wine.
– A Massachusetts woman who lost a limb after a 2018 accident is walking and moving like everyone else now that she has a bionic leg fully connected to her brain.
– A New NASA radar image shows a small moon around an asteroid as it passes close to Earth.
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