Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Making Science More Better For You on 02/10/09

Headline of the day
Human hair found in prehistoric hyena poop (Discovery.com/MSNBC)
By Jennifer Viegas

Hairs that likely belonged to humans living 195,000 to 257,000 years ago in Africa have been identified in fossilized brown hyena dung, according to a new study that describes the first non-bony material in the early human fossil record.

Until now, the oldest known human hairs were from a 9,000-year-old Chinchorro mummy from Arica, northern Chile. This latest discovery, made at Gladysvale cave, South Africa, exceeds the mummy's age by about 200,000 years.

Clearly, prehistoric hyenas were no laughing matter.

No comments: