The iconic sarsen stones at Stonehenge were erected some 4500 years ago. Within a few centuries the site became a memorial to a vanished people. By then, almost every Briton had been wiped out by incomers. It isn’t clear exactly why they disappeared so rapidly. But a picture of the people who replaced them is emerging. Image: -Jeffrey-
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A proud lineage with a history stretching back thousands of years is swept aside by newcomers from the south-east – only to rise to dominance once more 15,000 years later. It’s not the plotline of some fantasy epic, but the real story of prehistoric Europe in the years after modern humans conquered the continent – as a new genetic analysis has just revealed. Image: Martin Frouz and Ji?í Svoboda
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Ever since we learned, in 2010, that humans and Neanderthals once interbred one question stood out: what, if any, consequences have those Stone Age liaisons had on us? A new study now provides the clearest evidence yet that they did affect us, changing our risk to a range of health-related issues. Image: erix!
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Radioisotopes have ’em, and apparently so does DNA. A study of bones from New Zealand’s extinct Moas suggests the double helix has a measurable half-life. Its length indicates that we have underestimated DNA’s ability to survive in the fossil record. Image: M. Allentoft
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