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Life sciences/Evolutionary biology/Phylogenetics/Common ancestry

Electrical brain activity measured in bearded dragons suggests these patterns evolved in the common ancestor of mammals, birds, and reptiles.
A global, four-year project involving hundreds of scientists shows how avian lineages diverged after the dinosaurs’ extinction.

Early humans were lashing stone tips to wooden handles to make spears and knives about 200,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a study in the 16 November issue of Science.

Attaching stone points to handles, or “hafting,” was an important technological advance that made it possible to handle or throw sharp points with much more power and control. Both Neandertals and early Homo sapiens made hafted spear tips, and evidence of this technology is relatively common after about 200,000 to 300,000 years ago.