Reuters Science News Summary

New study offers insight The advent of agriculture roughly 11,500 years ago in the Middle East was a milestone for humankind - a revolution in diet and lifestyle that moved beyond the way hunter-gatherers had existed since Homo sapiens arose more than 300,000 years ago in Africa.

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What did people eat before agriculture? New study offers insight

The advent of agriculture roughly 11,500 years ago in the Middle East was a milestone for humankind - a revolution in diet and lifestyle that moved beyond the way hunter-gatherers had existed since Homo sapiens arose more than 300,000 years ago in Africa. While the scarcity of well-preserved human remains from the period preceding this turning point has made the diet of pre-agricultural people a bit of a mystery, new research is now providing insight into this question. Scientists reconstructed the dietary practices of one such culture from North Africa, surprisingly documenting a heavily plant-based diet.

T. rex is at the center of a debate over dinosaur intelligence

Surmising even the physical appearance of a dinosaur - or any extinct animal - based on its fossils is a tricky proposition, with so many uncertainties involved. Assessing a dinosaur's intelligence, considering the innumerable factors contributing to that trait, is exponentially more difficult. A study published last year by Vanderbilt University neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel that evaluated the intelligence of Tyrannosaurus rex, focusing upon estimated brain size and the number of brain neurons, as comparable to that of primates - specifically a baboon - caused a stir in scientific circles.

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