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Brisbane, Australia (UPI) Dec 28, 2010 Some examples of ancient rock art in Western Australia maintain their vivid colors because they are alive, researchers have found. Scientists at the University of Queensland have discovered that colorful bacteria and fungi have colonized the rock paintings, the BBC reported Monday. Researcher Jack Pettigrew and his colleagues studied 80 rock artworks in 16 locations in Western Australia's Kimberley region. They found some of the oldest examples showed signs of life, but no paint. The team dubbed the phenomenon "living pigments." "'Living pigments' is a metaphorical device to refer to the fact that the pigments of the original paint have been replaced by pigmented micro-organisms," Pettigrew said. "These organisms are alive and could have replenished themselves over endless millennia to explain the freshness of the paintings' appearance." These "living pigments" may explain why attempts to date some rock art has shown inconsistent results, Pettigrew says, because although the paintings may be ancient, the life that fills their outlines is quite recent.
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Ancient human group identified by DNALeipzig, Germany (UPI) Dec 22, 2010 Scientists say human fossils in Siberia have been identified as those of an ancient human group dubbed the Denisovans, cousins of the Neanderthals. Researchers say the shadowy ancient group lived in Asia from roughly 400,000 to 50,000 years ago and interbred with ancestors of modern inhabitants of New Guinea, The New York Times reported. Scientists have managed to extract the ent ... read more |
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