Early Fire Use in South African Cave, Frozen Baby Woolly Mammoth
Human ancestors used fire in this cave a million years ago. Photo: M. Chazan.
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This Week: We’re bringing you stories from three different parts of the world today: Siberia, France and South Africa. We have new discoveries from ancient times. One is a baby woolly mammoth. The other is earliest evidence of fire us by not humans, but our ancestors. Also, a scientist exploring the chemical ingredients of the world’s oceans.
Frozen Baby Woolly Mammoth: Scientists recently discovered a baby woolly mammoth preserved in the frozen tundra of Northern Siberia. Nicknamed Yuka, the mammoth lived around 10,000 years ago.
Video: Baby Mammoth Carcass Found in Siberia.
Scientists Find Evidence of Early Use of Fire By Human Ancestors: It is well known that our ancestors used fire to ward off predators, provide warmth, and cook food. But exactly when they started doing this is a matter of debate. A new study by an international team of scientists may push back the dawn of fire by hundreds of thousands of years. The finding also supports a provocative theory about the role cooking may have played in human evolution.
Read more here.
BBQ Begets Bigger Brains: Listen to our interview with Harvard anthropologist Richard Wrangham.
Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human.
Tracing the Ocean’s Ingredients: The world’s oceans are full of salt and also contain ingredients vital to marine life and the Earth’s climate. Reporter Ari Daniel Shapiro of our partner program NOVA met up with a French scientist who’s studying the chemistry of seawater for clues to our planet’s future.
Nova: “Elements in the Ocean”.
