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Trees are believed to have originated hundreds of millions of years ago. Ever since, evidence of these ancient plant sentinels has been in short supply. Now, a new discovery of uniquely 3D tree fossils has opened a window into what the world was like when the planet’s early forests were beginning to evolve, expanding our understanding of the architecture of trees throughout Earth’s history.

Something about one of the floor tiles in his parents’ newly renovated European home seemed extremely strange. That’s because the man who made the discovery, a dentist, recognized the bizarre, out-of-place object he had just found. The unusual discovery was made when Reddit user Kidipadeli75 noticed a floor tile located in a portion of the home leading out onto a patio area that seemed to have something very strange embedded in it. Naturally, he did what anyone would do in our modern era of internet sleuthing: he posted an image of the oddity online. The curious object in the photo...

...By the age of 17, Pompey was an active participant in his father's campaigns, and was busily building a foundation for his own military career.Pompey rose to prominence serving Sulla in the first major Roman civil war, defeating the forces of Marius in Africa. For this he earned, or was mocked with, the title Magnus (the Great)....he coerced a command in Spain against the rebel Sertorius, simply through the fear of his legions... Pompey returned to Rome in triumph.Upon returning from Spain, Pompey helped mop up the war with the gladiator general Spartacus, claiming much of the credit in the...

The Persian conquest of Palestine in 614 CE is described in historical sources as a most violent military raid that dramatically affected the political and administrative stability of Byzantine Palestine, involving large scale damage to churches and a mass killing of the local Christian population. Common view has it that the conquest marked a turning point in the history of the Near East and was one of the causes for the rapid Early Islamic conquests, twenty years later. Although the Persian domination - lasting only 14 years (614-628), was a very brief episode in the long historical sequence of Palestine,...

Taxpayer-funded National Public Radio has placed a trigger warning on the Declaration of Independence, a move that demonstrates how hopelessly woke the station has become. The news comes just weeks after a longtime employee blew the whistle on how the organization shifted to publishing far-left dribble after Donald Trump won in 2016.

An archaeological discovery in France has revealed the Stone Age remains of two women thought to have been tortured and sacrificed in a form of murder associated with the Italian Mafia. Though the remains were discovered in 1985, a study published last week in the journal Science Advances reveals the "atypical" positioning of the bodies. The paper's authors believe the women could have died by "self-strangulation" using a ligature that bound their ankles to their necks. The torture is known as "incaprettamento," a homicide ritual of the Italian Mafia, sometimes used to punish people thought to be traitors. A third...

In an ancient Maya temple-pyramid in Guatemala, archaeologists recently discovered the scorched bones of at least four adults who were likely members of a royal lineage. The burning signaled a deliberate and potentially public desecration of their remains, according to new research.The bones offer a rare glimpse of intentional corpse destruction in Maya culture to commemorate dramatic political change.All of the remains belonged to adults, and scientists identified three of the individuals as male. Two were between 21 and 35 years old, and one was between 40 and 60 years old, researchers reported Thursday in the journal Antiquity. Among the...

...In the past decade, satellite data and fossil finds have suggested that the Arabian Peninsula was not always an arid desert. Periods when the region contained lakes and lush greenery might have drawn people and animals there from Africa, according to the study's authors... in 2018, Stewart and his colleagues described an 88,000-year-old finger bone from the Saudi Arabian desert2 — one of the oldest human fossils found outside of Africa. And in 2020, they described footprints on a lake shore dating back around 120,000 years...The researchers turned to caves under Harrat Khaybar, a vast basalt plain pocked with volcanic...

An analysis of over 4,000 stone artifacts discovered on an island off northwestern Australia provides a snapshot of Aboriginal life tens of thousands of years ago...The diverse artifacts found on the island also reveal intriguing insights about the movement of people between Australia's mainland and the island, especially during the peak of the last ice age, between 29,000 and 19,000 years ago, according to the study, which was published April 1 in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews.At that time, sea levels were low enough to expose the continental shelf between Australia and what is now Barrow Island, a 78-square-mile (202...

...Located in Marliens, a commune in eastern France, the site has a large bowtie-shaped structure, whose middle sports a circular construction measuring 36 feet (11 meters) in diameter. This center circlet is interconnected by a 26-foot-long (8 m) horseshoe-shaped structure on one side and a jug-handle-shaped feature on the other, according to a translated statement from the French National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP), which carried out the excavations...Based on the plethora of artifacts found there — including a bundle containing seven flint arrowheads, two protective armbands worn by archers, a flint lighter and a copper-alloy dagger — archaeologists...

For about a century, the novelty of horse diving from great heights into a tiny tank of water was all the rage in America. And was every bit crazy as it sounds. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VIDEOS AT LINK............... A horse takes a practice dive at Atlantic City's Steel Pier Park in 1978. (John Margolies, Library of Congress) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Readers will inevitably take sides with this story. There will be outrage. Decidedly, animal rights activists for sure will howl with rage. The intent is not to spark debate or rekindle old controversy. What’s done is done, live and learn. In many ways, we...

The British nobility is divided into tiers or ranks, known as the peerage. The roots of this hierarchical system date back around a thousand years; it began to gain a defined structure (as with many things in British history) after William I conquered England in 1066. The peerage has five ranks: baron, viscount, earl, marquess, and duke, in ascending order. And within each tier, superiority is given to the holder of the oldest peerage. So, for example, the Duke of Devonshire is more senior than the Duke of Marlborough because the former title was created in 1694, eight years before...

13. Sparple This word is not only fun to say, it can also come in handy. It means to deflect attention from one thing by making a big deal of something else entirely.

Scientists analyzed more than 2,700 modern Indian genomes from 17 states, including DNA from individuals from most geographic regions, speakers of all major languages, tribal and caste groups.They revealed that one of the three main ancestral groups in India — ancient Iranian farmers — can be traced back to a group of agricultural farmers from Sarazm in modern-day Tajikistan. They also uncovered the extraordinary diversity of DNA inherited from Neanderthals and Denisovans, the closest, now-extinct relatives of modern humans.Additionally, the team found that most of the genetic variation within the current Indian population stems from a single, major migration event...

Irish folklore has many mythical characters such as the banshees or Tir na nOg, but according to one man Leprechauns are 100 per cent real. Kevin Woods, recognised as Ireland’s one and only leprechaun whisperer, recently shared astonishing claims on Ireland AM. During the broadcast, Woods, who comes from Carlingford, County Louth and affectionately known as McCoillte, shared some of the secrets involving leprechauns and their long history which has become intertwined with human spirits. Is British wine the next big thing? According to woods’ official website: ‘He talks to the 236 leprechauns that still exist there. They are affectionately...

“To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.” — George Mason of Virginia In April of 1775, the British Royal Military Governor of Massachusetts, General Thomas Gage, sent 800 British Army Regulars, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, on a preemptive raid to seize guns from American patriots at Lexington and Concord.

During the first six decades of the eighteenth century, the American colonies were mostly allowed to govern themselves. In exchange, they loyally fought for Great Britain in imperial wars against the French and Spanish. But in 1763, after the British and Americans won the French and Indian War, King George III began working to eliminate American self-government. The succeeding years saw a series of political crises provoked by the king and parliament. What turned the political dispute into a war was arms confiscation at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775.

On April 19, 1775, seventy-eight-year-old Captain Samuel Whittemore crouched behind a stone wall next to his home. Whittemore’s old fingers tightly gripped his musket and his pistol. A sword hung from his belt. A phalanx of Redcoats looted homes as they retreated back to Boston. The senior Patriot, who had resisted tyranny and the rule of the Crown for years, planned to fight to the death to defend his home.When the British troops approached, he blasted away, slaying two Redcoats and wounding or killing a third with his sword. The Redcoats then unleashed their fury on Whittemore, shooting him in...

A £560,000 prize was on offer for scholars who could read the ancient Roman texts buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. Scrolls cocooned in volcanic ash that consumed the Roman city of Pompeii have been deciphered for the first time in 2,000 years. Using AI researchers were able to discern some meaning from the writings which were discovered in the doomed ancient Italian city that was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD. ...In a statement the Vesuvius Challenge revealed some of the information hidden until now in the scrolls which appear to be philosophical treatises concerning...

Greece will ban bottom trawling in all of its marine protected areas by 2030, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Tuesday making the the country the first in Europe to announce such a ban. Speaking at the Our Ocean Conference in Athens, he said the country would become the first to bring an end to the damaging fishing practice in these protected areas. It will be banned in Greece’s three national marine parks – one of which is the largest in the East Mediterranean Sea – by 2026 with the rest following before the end of the decade. Bottom...