A carnivorous dinosaur that once hunted in New Mexico was among the last of its kind, paleontologists say.
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Rock Art in Chaco Canyon May Depict Ancient Solar Eclipse, Experts Say
Experts say a petroglyph in New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon may depict a solar eclipse from 920 years ago.
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Elite ‘Dynasty’ at Chaco Canyon Got Its Power From One Woman, DNA Shows
New DNA evidence shows that elite leaders at Chaco Canyon weren’t just members of the same class — they were members of the same extended family, a “dynasty” that traced its ancestry to a single woman.
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Chaco’s Elites Were Natives of Chaco Canyon, Not Migrants, Their Remains Show
The elites of Chaco Canyon were born and raised there, and weren’t migrants from distant regions, as many thought, new research finds.
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How Did People of Chaco Canyon Grow Their Food? Expert Says, They Didn’t
Recently, researchers have been at odds over a simple, central question in Southwestern archaeology: How did the people of Chaco Canyon manage to grow their food? According to new research: They didn’t.
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Giant Triassic Predator, Named for Baby-Eating Monster, Discovered in New Mexico
In a fossil quarry in New Mexico, paleontologists have found a creature fearsome enough to be worthy of the name Vivaron.
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900-Year-Old Village Recorded in Volcanic Badlands of New Mexico
A 900-year-old village hidden in New Mexico’s black-rock badlands reveals its unique ties to Chaco Canyon.
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Cocoa, Caffeinated ‘Black Drink’ Were Widespread in Pre-Contact Southwest, Study Finds
Stimulating drinks made from exotic plants, like the cocoa tree and a type of southern holly, were consumed much more widely across the prehistoric Southwest than was thought, according to…
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Bones of Exotic Macaws Reveal Early Rise of Trade, Hierarchy in Chaco Canyon
A new look at some unusual remains found at New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon may change our understanding of when, and how, the culture of the Ancestral Puebloans felt the first…
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Hallucinogenic Plants May Be Key to Decoding Ancient Southwestern Paintings, Expert Says
Dozens of rock art sites in southern New Mexico, recently documented for the first time, are revealing unexpected botanical clues that archaeologists say may help unlock the meaning of the…
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Tooth Found in Fossil Leg Bone Is ‘First Evidence’ of Clash Between Ancient Apex Predators
A tooth found embedded in a fossil leg bone is evidence of an unlikely battle between two top predators in the American Southwest some 220 million years ago — one…
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Spiky, Scaly New Species of Ankylosaur Discovered in New Mexico
The remains of an unusual armored dinosaur found in New Mexico may “fill the gap” in the fossil record of the lumbering, plated beasts known as ankylosaurs, paleontologists say. Its…
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Violence in the Ancient Southwest Offers Insights Into Peace, Study Says
Despite some recent sensational claims that the prehistoric Southwest was the site of the worst violence in American history, the archaeologist often cited for that assertion says that, in fact,…
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‘Hidden Architecture’ of 1,000-Year-Old Village Discovered in New Mexico
For more than 40 years, archaeologists have been coaxing what they could from the traces of an ancient Puebloan settlement in New Mexico they call Blue J. Buried under a thousand…
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Southwestern-Style Spear Throwers Identified in the Ozarks
New analysis of two spear-throwers excavated nearly a century ago in the Ozark Mountains reveals what one archaeologist calls an “uncanny” similarity to those used in the ancient Southwest and…
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