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30,000 Years Ago: A Toolkit Reveals the Contents of Ancient Hunters’ Pouches

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Collection of Stone Tools from Milovice IV Archaeological Site

Martin Novak

The discovered series of stone tools in the Czech Republic appears to belong to hunter-gatherers who roamed the area roughly 30,000 years ago. Among the 29 artifacts, which include blades and points used for hunting, skinning, and cutting wood, researchers gain rare insights into the daily lives of ancient hunters, as noted by Dominik Chlachula from the Chekoa Academy of Sciences in Brno.

The investigation began in 2009 when a village road collapsed in the Pavlovskövurky Mountains, revealing an old cellar. By 2021, archaeologists uncovered a deeper site known as Mirovice IV, which yielded charcoal dating back approximately 29,550-30,550 years. Here, researchers found horse and reindeer bones, along with a collection of stone tools that seemed to have been preserved in leather pouches over time, although the material has since decayed.

The tools exhibited significant wear, according to Chlachula. Most blades showed signs of extensive cutting, while several had holes near the handle. Some points displayed fractures or microscopic damage, indicating their use as spear or arrow tips.

Certain pieces appear to have been repurposed from older tools, hinting at the scarcity of quality stones or indicating that hunters aimed to conserve their resources, he adds.

Further examinations revealed that around two-thirds of the tools were made from glacial sediment stones originating from at least 130 kilometers away in the north, a considerable distance, particularly when traversing winding routes. The remaining tools seemed to come from western Slovakia, roughly 100 kilometers southeast. It’s still uncertain whether the owner procured the stones directly or through trade networks.

Many of the artifacts were too damaged to be usable, Chlachula explains. Nevertheless, hunters may have chosen to keep them for their sentimental value.

Neanderthals, Ancient Humans, Cave Art: France

Join new scientist Kate Douglas as she embarks on an enchanting voyage through time, exploring significant Neanderthal and Upper Paleolithic sites across southern France, from Bordeaux to Montpellier.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Paleontologists Discover Fossilized Intestinal Contents from Sauropod Dinosaurs

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Diamantinasaurus Mathilde, which existed approximately 94 million years ago during the mid-Cretaceous period, primarily consumed conifers, ferns, flowering plants, and utilized intestinal microorganisms for digestion almost entirely. You can learn more about it at the Winton Formation in Queensland, Australia.

Artist’s impression of Diamantinasaurus Mathilde (Judy). Image credit: Travis Tischler.

Understanding dinosaur diets is essential for grasping their paleontology and their roles in Mesozoic ecosystems.

Nevertheless, while many non-avian dinosaurs are interpreted as herbivores based on their anatomy, only a few fossils provide tangible evidence in the form of coprolites (fossilized intestinal contents).

Out of the thousands of herbivorous non-avian dinosaur specimens identified globally, only three have shown likely or atypical gut contents, all of which belong to armored theropod dinosaurs preserved in marine layers.

Other herbivorous non-avian dinosaur specimens with fossilized gut contents include hadrosaurid ornithopods found in river environments.

Thus, the intestinal contents of sauropod dinosaurs—arguably the most ecologically significant large terrestrial herbivores during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods—remain largely unexplored due to their immense size.

“Since the 19th century, paleontologists have universally classified sauropods as herbivores,” stated Dr. Stephen Polopat, deputy director of the Western Australian Centre for Organic and Isotope Geochemistry at Curtin University.

“However, the specific plants they consumed and the heights from which they fed remained largely unknown until now.”

Dr. Polopat and his team examined the fossilized intestines of a specimen of Diamantinasaurus Mathilde informally referred to as Judy.

This fossil was discovered at a site near Winton and excavated in 2017 by museum staff and citizen scientists at the Australian Dinosaurs’ Museum of Natural History.

Among Judy’s stomach contents, paleontologists identified pinus and bracts from tall coniferous trees, as well as leaves and fruits originating from small seeds and flowering plants.

“The findings indicated that sauropods consumed a variety of plants from different levels above the ground, contributing to their long-term survival and adaptability,” Dr. Polopat remarked.

“The stomach contents we analyzed belonged to a 12-meter-long sub-adult sauropod.”

“Our research shows that several types of sub-adult sauropods could feed at varying heights and adapt to diverse climatic, environmental, and vegetation changes during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.”

“We also verified that sauropods exhibited bulk-feeding, similar to methods utilized by herbivorous reptiles and birds today.”

“This implies they did not chew their food but swallowed it whole, allowing their digestive systems to process it completely.”

“Any meal would have lingered in their gastrointestinal tracts for as long as two weeks before being excreted.”

“Finally, the ability to observe sauropod stomach contents for the first time corroborated prior hypotheses regarding their dietary behavior.”

“Sauropods were remarkable creatures that roamed the planet for over 130 million years. Understanding their dietary patterns is crucial for comprehending their impact on the Earth’s ecosystem, particularly concerning plants and other herbivorous species.”

“Further research is necessary, and ideally, we aim to discover additional sauropod fossils containing stomach contents to ascertain whether their feeding habits evolved as they matured, especially regarding their consumption of growing plants.”

Professor Kliti Grice, founder of Curtin University’s Western Australian Centre for Organic and Isotope Geochemistry, expressed:

“Utilizing advanced organic geochemical methods, we confirmed the existence of both angiosperms and growth structures within the diet of this sauropod.”

The team’s research paper is published in the journal Current Biology.

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Stephen F. Polopat et al. 2025. The contents of the fossilized intestine reveal the feeding habits of sauropod dinosaurs. Current Biology 35 (11): 2597-2613; doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.053

Source: www.sci.news

Analysis of fossilized stomach contents provides insight into the origins of dinosaurs

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Swedish and Polish paleontologists are using hundreds of fossilized fecal and vomit samples from the Polish Basin in central Europe to reconstruct the rise of dinosaurs to play a dominant role in Earth’s ancient ecosystems. I investigated.

Bone-crushing archosaur fecal fossil smoke, smoke In the background is reconstruction. Image credit: Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki.

The fossil record shows that dinosaurs evolved during the mid-Triassic period (247 to 237 million years ago).

However, the dominance of dinosaurs in terrestrial ecosystems was not seen until the early Jurassic period, about 30 million years later.

Although many non-dinosaur tetrapods (four-limbed vertebrates) were expelled during this period, questions remain as to why dinosaurs came to dominate the ecosystem.

“The real detective work is piecing together ‘who ate who’ in the past,” said Martin Kvarnström, a paleontologist at Uppsala University.

“Being able to examine what animals ate and how they interacted with their environment helps us understand what enabled dinosaurs to be so successful.”

Dr. Kvarnström and his colleagues reconstructed the food web using more than 500 fossilized remains of digestive material (such as feces and vomit), known as bromalite, collected from the Polish Basin, which spans the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic period. We investigated this transition by constructing a.

“The research material was collected over a period of 25 years,” said Dr. Grzegorz Niedrzywicki, a paleontologist at Uppsala University and the Polish Geological Institute.

“It took years to piece everything together and paint a coherent picture.”

“Our study is innovative because we chose to understand the ecology of early dinosaurs based on their dietary preferences.”

“There were a lot of surprising discoveries along the way.”

Analysis of these remains (including 3D imaging of internal structures to reveal undigested food content) is compared to the existing fossil record, along with climate and botanical data, to determine the size and presence of vertebrates during this period. We estimated the change in quantity.

These data indicate that non-dinosaur tetrapods replaced omnivorous ancestors of early dinosaurs that evolved into the first carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs towards the end of the Triassic.

Researchers now believe that environmental changes associated with increased volcanic activity may have led to a greater variety of plant prey, which in turn led to the emergence of larger and more diverse herbivore species. Suggests.

This led to the evolution of even larger carnivorous dinosaurs by the beginning of the Jurassic period, completing the transition to dinosaur dominance within the ecosystem.

This analysis sheds light on the emergence of dinosaur dominance within the Polish Basin ecosystem.

“Our findings support the idea that stochastic processes and competitive advantage enabled dinosaurs’ great evolutionary success,” the authors said.

“Dinosaurs gradually achieved supremacy over 30 million years of evolution.”

“The processes illustrated by the Polish data may explain global patterns and shed new light on the emergence of environmentally dominated dinosaur dominance and gigantism that persisted until the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous.” We suggest that there is a

team’s paper Published in a magazine nature.

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M. Kvarnström others. Digestive content and food webs record the advent of dinosaur supremacy. naturepublished online on November 27, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08265-4

Source: www.sci.news