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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N. America’s Oldest Bison Fossil Found, Revealing ‘Mother of All Bison’
A fossil bone found in Yukon reveals that all North American bison descended from a single female that crossed into the Americas less than 200,000 years ago.
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Giant Skull Found in Alaska May Be Evidence of Elusive ‘King’ Polar Bear, Experts Say
A giant skull discovered in Alaska may belong to a subspecies of polar bear that’s new to scientists but familiar to indigenous people in the Arctic.
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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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Bones in Yukon Cave Show Humans in North America 24,000 Years Ago, Study Says
A close look at bones found in a Yukon cave may confirm a controversial finding made decades ago: that humans arrived in North America 10,000 years earlier than many experts believe.
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Ancient Predator of the Northern Plains Had Fiercest Bite of Any Mammal Ever, Study Says
A scrappy mammal that lived alongside dinosaurs packed the most powerful bite of any mammal, living or extinct, scientists say.
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Ice Age Cave Dwellers in Oregon Lived Among Extinct ‘Stout-Legged’ Horses, Fossils Show
Some of the earliest known inhabitants of the Pacific Northwest lived alongside a now-extinct species of ‘stout-legged’ horse, scientists say.
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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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12,000-Year-Old Camp Found in Utah May Have Experts “Adjusting Their Theories”
An Ice Age hunting camp being excavated west of Salt Lake City is the first archaeological find of its kind, for several reasons, researchers say.
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Woolly Mammoths Survived on Alaska Island Until Just 5,600 Years Ago, New Study Shows
On a remote Alaskan island, a population of woolly mammoths managed to persist until just 5,600 years ago, according to new research.
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‘Strange’ New Species of Marine Mammal Discovered in Alaska Fossils
An odd set of fossils that were once on display at a tribal office in Alaska have turned out to be a “strange” new species of marine mammal unlike any…
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Cave Discovered in South Dakota Contains Thousands of Ice Age Fossils
Once protected by thickets of poison ivy and riddled with rattlesnakes, a cave discovered in South Dakota’s Wind Cave National Park has, for the scientists exploring it, certainly lived up…
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Over 1,000 Ancient Stone Tools, Left by Great Basin Hunters, Found in Utah Desert
An array of stone tools discovered in northern Utah — including the largest instrument of its kind ever recorded — may change what we know about the ancient inhabitants of…
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Butchered Bones Found in Yukon Cave Bear Marks of Early Americans, Study Finds
They’re probably about half as old as scientists once thought they were. But a pair of butchered bones found in a cave near the Alaska-Yukon border are “definite” evidence of…
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