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North America



  • A 130,000-Year-Old Mastodon Threatens to Upend Human History

    After years of debate over the dating technology used on a mastodon found in San Diego, a group of researchers now believes that they can date it and the human tools to 130,000 years ago—more than 100,000 years earlier than the earliest humans are supposed to have made it to North America.



  • Ice core data supports ancient space impact idea

    New data from Greenland ice cores suggest North America may have suffered a large cosmic impact about 12,900 years ago.A layer of platinum is seen in ice of the same age as a known abrupt climate transition, US scientists report.The climate flip has previously been linked to the demise of the North American "Clovis" people.The data seem to back the idea that an impact tipped the climate into a colder phase, a point of current debate.Rapid climate change occurred 12,900 years ago, and it is proposed that this is associated with the extinction of large mammals - such as the mammoth, widespread wildfires and rapid changes in atmospheric and ocean circulation....



  • Smithsonian Channel gets North American rights to ‘Richard III’ documentary

    Smithsonian Channel has snagged exclusive North American program rights to a documentary about the recent discovery of King Richard III’s remains under an English parking lot that ended a 500-year mystery.When “The King’s Skeleton: Richard III Revealed” made its world debut on Channel 4 in the U.K., nearly 5 million viewers tuned in.You know Richard III — bad back, nasty guy, snuffed his young nephews in the Tower of London to snag the throne, then decided he’d trade his kingdom for a horse? Played over the years by Kenneth Branagh, Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Ian McKellen and Laurence Olivier?...