BREAKTHROUGHS (^) | EXPLORE
HONE; LEONARDO STABILE, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS (BOTH)
at the bottom of an aban-
is getting its day in the sun.
n species: Homo longi, aka
least 146,000 years old, the
modern features that show
than Neanderthals, some
uman skulls and fossils, but
n Ni, a paleoanthropologist
Yet dragon man is stirring
t could be a Denisovan, a
presented by scant fossils.
cores just how tangled the
—MAYA WEI-HAAS
GON MAN’?
ORE THAN 14 6,0 00
NEW HUMAN SPECIES.
Evidence of ‘birth of art’?
Found at Germany’s Unicorn Cave,
this 2.2-inch-long piece of deer bone
carved with slanted lines more than
50,000 years ago suggests Neander-
thals were capable of creative expres-
sion. Archaeologist Thomas Terberger
co-wrote a study of the piece; he says
it shows “the start of abstract thinking,
the birth of art.” —ANDREW CURRY
OCEAN WARMING
More depth
= less color
As seas warm, some
fish are descending
to cooler waters and
may see less color,
recent study mod-
els show. Photos
below simulate
what copperband
butterflyfish may
see at depths 66
feet apart; one
researcher likens the
dimming effect to
“going back to the
days of black-and-
white TV.” Reduced
color perception
can jeopardize a
fish’s critical ability
to identify others—
to tell prey, pred-
ator, and potential
mate apart.
—HICKS WOGAN
EXPLORE | DATA SHEET
ANIMALS
IN
SPACE
BY TAYLOR MAGGIACOMO AND ALEXANDER STEGMAIER
Two Soviet steppe tortoises
had already flown around the moon by
the time Neil Armstrong set foot on it in
- In fact, dozens of animals, includ-
ing insects, traveled into space before
humans did. In the 1940s, scientists began
to explore the limits of our atmosphere.
They wanted to understand if humans
could survive a weightless environment
and the rocket journey to get there—and
once they did, whether they’d be able to
operate a spacecraft. While the research no
longer involves canine cosmonauts (above),
decades on, mice, fruit flies, even jellyfish
continue to expand our understanding of
biology in space and on Earth. The stud-
ies may one day hold the key to sending
humans to the outer reaches of our solar
system and to better treating earthbound
diseases such as osteoporosis.24 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC