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Oregon cave, scientists have found some really old s@!t

Native Americans living in Oregon thousands of years ago did what came naturally before the advent of flush toilets (or the state of Oregon): They relieved themselves in a lakeside cave. Thanks to them, scientists now have samples of the oldest human DNA ever found in the New World.

The ancient coprolites (dried excrement) left behind by these early Americans remained in place until 2002, when University of Oregon archaeologist Dennis Jenkins and colleagues began finding them during summer field work at Oregon’s Paisley Caves. A team at Denmark’s Centre for Ancient Genetics has since studied the coprolites, and today published its analysis of DNA recovered from six of the specimens.

Radiocarbon dating done on the coprolites found that some of them date back as far as 14,300 years ago. That is 1,200 years older than the Clovis culture, long associated with the earliest Americans. Other sites believed to represent pre-Clovis habitation have been investigated, but intact human DNA has never been recovered from any of them.

If the radiocarbon and DNA evidence hold up during additional testing now being done at other labs, says Jenkins, “then we have broken the Clovis sound barrier, if you will.”

In addition to human DNA, the scientists also found DNA similar to that of a coyote or wolf in the coprolites. That could mean that the early Americans ate such an animal…or that the animal left a calling card of its own.

A newly unearthed fossil is the missing link between land and marine mammals

Standing two to three feet tall on legs adapted to wade through shallow water, the 48-million-year-old Indohyus is the missing link between modern-day whales and their land-lubbing ancestors. Hans Thewissen of the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy recovered the skeleton in rocks from Kashmir, a disputed region between India and Pakistan, where the deer-like herbivore lived during the Eocene epoch, 56 to 34 million years ago.

The extreme thickness of its bones is a trait seen often in animals that are aquatic waders (thick, heavy bones counteract buoyancy and allow the animal to stay underwater more easily), and chemical traces in its teeth indicate that the animal ate plants in a freshwater environment. Scientists know that Indohyus belongs in the evolutionary path with whales because it has skeletal similarities to both modern whales and known primordial whale ancestors.

The most complete dino yet uncovered gives researchers an unparalleled look at a Cretacean creature

Dakota is the name given to the remains of an Edmontosaurus discovered on a ranch in the Badlands in 1999. What sets Dakota apart from all but four other dinosaurs so far unearthed is its completeness. And not just its complete skeleton—nearly all of Dakota’s skin and soft tissues have been fossilized, which is an exceedingly rare discovery in paleontology. The perfect conditions had to exist at the time of the animal’s demise—being rapidly buried in substrate at just the right moisture level to bring about fossilization instead of decay.

Having recently been excavated from the ground, the five ton fossil was last month moved to the North Dakota state museum where scientists will spend at least a year working painstakingly to remove the sandstone in which the remains are trapped.

Researchers in the field are ecstatic with the prospect of getting the most complete look yet at the anatomy of these ancient animals. The quality and extent of the skin are proving to be unparalleled, even in comparison to the other three mummified specimens.

Via PhysOrg