Hundreds of exquisitely preserved mammal feces excavated from the famous La Brea Tar Pits have the potential to provide invaluable new insights into what Southern California was like in the Pleistocene Epoch.
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Saber-Tooth Cats, Dire Wolves Found in La Brea Tar Pits Show Wounds From Ice Age Battles
The bones of saber-tooth cats and extinct dire wolves from downtown Los Angeles still bear the marks of injuries sustained in battle more than 11,500 years ago, researchers say.
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Mastodon Site in San Diego Said to Be Earliest Sign of Humans in America, Riling Skeptics
A new study claims that humans were hunting in California 130,000 years ago, but skeptics abound.
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Clovis Culture, Ice Age Fauna Weren’t Wiped Out by Cosmic Impact, Study Finds
A new study may finally put to rest one of the most vexing theories about America’s natural history: that the giant fauna of the Ice Age — and the culture of humans who hunted them — were wiped out by a cosmic impact.
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‘Unusual’ Mammoth Fossil Discovered on California Island
Scientists have discovered the remains of an “unusual” mammoth that lived alongside some of the earliest known human inhabitants of Southern California.
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Ancient Seafarers’ Tool Sites, Up to 12,000 Years Old, Discovered on California Island
Archaeologists have turned up evidence of some of the oldest human activity in coastal Southern California, just off the coast of Ventura County.
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Nearly 9,000 Artifacts Uncovered in California Desert, Spanning 11,500 Years of History
Archaeologists exploring a military base in southern California have uncovered nearly 9,000 artifacts dating back as much as 13,000 years, shedding new light on human history in the Mojave Desert.
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Severed Heads, Skull Bowls Found in California Graves Were Tributes, Not War Trophies, Study Finds
A 3,000 year-old village discovered in central California has been found to contain an unusual set of burials — with more than a half dozen individuals buried without their heads,…
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Mass Grave Found in California Reveals Prehistoric Violence Against ‘Outsiders’
An ancient mass grave, uncovered during the construction of a shopping mall outside San Francisco, contains the bodies of seven men who appear to have been victims of “mass homicide”…
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Radioactive Wreck of WWII Aircraft Carrier Discovered Near San Francisco Bay
After more than 60 years — and some of the most intense action that a military vessel has ever seen — a World War II-era aircraft carrier has recently been…
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Western Digs’ Top 5 Paleontology Stories of 2014
A red-headed mammoth, a cave piled high with ancient animal remains, and an unusual South Dakota dinosaur are all among the discoveries that shaped Western Digs’ most popular paleontology stories of…
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Shipwrecks Discovered in Nautical ‘Graveyard’ at San Francisco’s Golden Gate
Maritime archaeologists say they’ve discovered the wrecks of two great but long-forgotten ships, along with a newly found “mystery wreck,” just outside San Francisco’s famous Golden Gate. Researchers with the…
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First Columbian Mammoth With Hair Discovered on California Farm
Artichoke farmers plowing their fields in northern California have reaped a strange harvest: a trove of exotic animal fossils, including camel, mastodon and — most striking of all — the…
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Vinyl Records Excavated at Famous ’60s Commune Challenge ‘Hippie’ Stereotype, Study Says
The Grateful Dead once lived there, apparently taken with the acoustics of the living room. Its bucolic grounds were featured on the back cover of the Dead’s 1969 album Aoxomoxoa….
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From Stone Darts to Dismembered Bodies, New Study Reveals 5,000 Years of Violence in Central California
From shooting their enemies with darts and arrows to crushing their skulls and even harvesting body parts as trophies, the ancient foragers of central California engaged in sporadic, and sometimes…
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Earliest Evidence of Gigantism-Like Disease Found in 3,800-Year-Old California Skeleton
The remains of a man buried 3,800 years ago in a richly decorated California grave bear some unusual but unmistakable features — a protruding brow, a lantern jaw, thick leg…
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