Prehistoric Sex, Ancient Footprints
New Yorker writer David Grann has a new book out, about an explorer from the 1920s who became obsessed with finding the Lost City of Z in the Brazilian Amazon. Grann talks about his own obsession in writing the book.
A million and a half years ago, one of our ancestors took a walk in mud in Kenya’s Rift Valley. Last year, researchers from Rutgers University found these fossil footprints. John Harris, one of the scientists, says the footprints are the oldest ever found that look completely modern.
In Australia, paleontologist John Long of Museum Victoria in Melbourne has been studying fossil fish from the Gogo rock formation. He’s now found that some of these fish, called placoderms, were having sex 380 million years ago. It is the oldest recorded evidence of such behavior.
And a hundred years ago, an Italian millionaire launched a movement called futurism. The basic idea: the past was dead, and the future was all about science and technology. We look at the history of futurism.
And, according to a new study from the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, infidelity may be a function of hormone levels—at least for women. The study found that women with higher levels of the hormone estradiol were more likely to flirt or have an affair.
Music:
Marvin Gaye, Let’s Get It On
See Rutgers’ John Harris talk about the old footprints.
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