An article published in the journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’ describes the study of the oldest fossil cranium discovered in Portugal, in the Aroeira cave. A team led by archaeologist João Zilhão which includes anthropologist Rolf Quam of Binghamton University found that incomplete cranium which has an age estimated at about 400,000 years along with animal remains and various artifacts including stone tools among which several handaxes.

An article published in the “Journal of Systematic Palaeontology” describes a research that proposes a taxonomic revision among ichthyosaurs, marine reptiles that lived in the Triassic and Cretaceous periods. Dean Lomax, a paleontologist at the University of Manchester, and Professor Judy Massare of Brockport College studied fossils of the species Ichthyosaurus communis and Ichthyosaurus intermedius concluding that they are actually the same species.

An article published in the journal “Science” describes the study of two incomplete skulls dated between 105,000 and 125,000 years discovered in the Henan province in eastern China. An international team examined the fragments found describing the mixed characteristics that put together those of various species of hominids. An intriguing hypothesis is that these are the mysterious Denisovans, of which very few bones were found. Unfortunately the attempt to recover DNA fragments failed.

An article published in the journal “Scientific Reports” describes the discovery of a primitive worm with jaws that are huge compared to its body’s size. Called Websteroprion armstrongi, it was studied by a team of researchers after a fossil specimen was discovered at the Royal Ontario Museum, where it was stored in the mid ’80s. It seems to belong to the class of polychaetes (Polychaeta), a marine relative of earthworms and leeches that lived about 400 million years ago.