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SCIENCE IN THE NEWS WEEKLY

Fossils Suggest Earlier Human Arrival in Europe

Two international research teams reported last week that they had discovered the oldest known skeletal remains of anatomically modern humans in the whole of Europe.

In other news of the ancient past, a team of scientists claims that legendary Viking sunstones, used for navigation, could have been calcite crystals and that Vikings could have used them to get highly accurate compass readings even when the sun was hidden.

An extraordinary mouse-sized fossil animal found in Argentina is challenging conventional wisdom about the ancient history of mammals. The 100-million-year-old animal was discovered in sandstone sediments at Cipolletti, Rio Negro Province, Argentina.

Woolly mammoths and other large animals driven to extinction since the last ice age each fell prey to a different lethal set of circumstances. This conclusion means it could be more difficult than thought to identify species at greatest risk of disappearing today.

Archaeologists say they've found 16th-century jewelry and other Spanish artifacts under a former Native American village in what is now Georgia. The discovery suggests an expedition led by conquistador Hernando de Soto ventured far off its presumed course, which took the men from Florida to Missouri.