SCIENCE IN THE NEWS WEEKLY
A Westerner in Ancient Mongolia
DNA analysis recently revealed that a skeleton found in a 2,000-year-old cemetery in eastern Mongolia belonged to a man of European descent. What's more, scholars believe he had a prominent position in the Xiongnu Empire, which included ethnically diverse nomadic tribes.
In other news of the distant past, parts of an ancient Roman law text thought to have been lost forever have turned up in the bindings of other old books. The Codex Gregorianus was compiled in the third century A.D. and began a long tradition of collecting Roman emperors' laws in a single volume.
Researchers have taken an unusual approach in trying to determine how a cat-sized, winged dinosaur flew. They built a life-size model from a beautifully preserved fossil skeleton found in China.
And, finally, a study of rotting fish has given scientists insight that could help them better interpret some of the oldest known fossils. They observed particular patterns of decay that should help them more accurately identify very early marine fossils.