October 18, 2023: Men weren't the only hunters among our ancestors, what will happen to the continents in 250 million years and AI has become a bandaid for sloppy product design. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | Fossil and archaeological records, as well as ethnographic studies of modern-day hunter-gatherers, indicate that women have a long history of hunting game. Indeed, a 2023 study found that 79 percent of the 63 foraging societies with clear descriptions of their hunting strategies feature women hunters. Higher levels of estrogen and adiponectin in women may make them more athletically inclined than previously thought–enabling more efficient fat storage and less muscle breakdown. Women's slow-twitch muscles are also suited to longer bouts of endurance.
Why this matters: The age-old refrain that "men hunt and women gather" isn't quite true. Ethnographic data and assessments of burial grounds and skeletal remains indicate that prehistoric societies had a more egalitarian division of labor, with women participating heavily in hunting. Operating under the long-held assumption, evidence of women hunting has been downplayed or dismissed in the last several decades.
What the experts say: "Female physiology is optimized for exactly the kinds of endurance activities involved in procuring game animals for food," write Cara Ocobock, an anthropologist at the University of Notre Dame, and Sarah Lacy, a biological anthropologist at the University of Delaware. "And ancient women and men appear to have engaged in the same foraging activities rather than upholding a sex-based division of labor." | | | The next supercontinent (a merger of all current-day continents), dubbed Pangaea Ultima, will form around Earth's equator 250 million years from now, according to a recent study. Conditions on the landmass will likely lead to a precipitous fall in biodiversity caused by scorching surface temperatures that could render more than 90 percent of that future supercontinent uninhabitable for mammalian life. The supercontinent would experience an increase in volcanic activity, say the paper's authors, powering greenhouse gas–belching eruptions that raise global temperatures. An immense desert would occupy the supercontinent's interior.
The caveats: Just how a united land mass of all the merged continents might arise is uncertain; it may not include all the current continents, for example, and its placement on the globe would impact the physical conditions that arise. The geologic mash-up required to make a supercontinent may release gases and water vapor that alter the planet drastically. Whether mammals might survive the new world depends on what kind of physiological adaptations they develop.
What the experts say: "It's completely different to the scenario that we're talking about with climate change right now," says Tori Herridge, a mammal paleontologist at the University of Sheffield. "I don't think Pangaea Ultima is the biggest problem mammals have to face right now. Let's see first if they make it through the next 100 years."
Related: A long-lost tectonic plate that once underpinned what is today the South China Sea has been rediscovered 20 million years after disappearing. | 3 min read | | | • Disasters like hurricanes, floods and wildfires worsen conditions such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Mental health disaster specialists can help residents cope and make decisions in the aftermath of such events.| 6 min read | | | • Animals on the African safari are twice as likely to flee and vacate an area when they hear human voices than when they hear lions or gunshots. | 2 min read | | | • The lifesaving work of the Black nurses of Sea View Hospital on Staten Island, N.Y., whose efforts helped cure tuberculosis, remained unknown until now. Author Maria Smilios scoured the historical records and interviewed some of the nurses' descendants to write a book on their experience. | 8 min read | | | • Every year about 1,000 human remains go unidentified in the U.S. New genetic technology can give them names and return them to their families. | 5 min read | | | Today in Science reader Andew Hollander sent in this stunner he snapped of the solar eclipse last weekend. Hollander, who is based in New Mexico close to the eclipse's predicted path, grabbed this and several other jaw-dropping images with a Nikon P1000 camera, equipped with a 4-inch solar filter, and mounted on an old telescope tripod. No wonder they call this eclipse the Ring of Fire! | | | • Many tech companies claim they are "innovating" when they incorporate artificial intelligence into new devices or services. But it's not the creation of something new, or revolutionary, but simply corporations selling you back basic usability (facilitated by AI), covering up decades of messy, thoughtless and bloated design choices, writes Ed Zitron, the CEO of EZPR, a national tech and business public-relations agency. | 6 min read | | | • The internet right now can feel like a mean and wild place. Here's how we might fix it. | MIT Technology Review | | | • Scientists have presented an expanded view of evolution, one that holds that complex natural systems evolve into even more complex versions of themselves. | Reuters | | | • Biodiversity counts are woefully underrepresented in areas that were formally redlined, according to a new assessment. | Eos | | | Today we are certainly looking in both directions--backward to prehistoric communities and waaaay forward to the future of the planet some quarter billion years from now. It's a nice moment to reflect on how amazing it is that we conscious beings are present in the NOW. I hope we make it long enough to see Pangea Ultima. Check out this cool collection that considers all aspects of the Human Age. | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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