Archeology

New findings from the period between 12000 and 6000 BCE, made in South America, indicate that about 30 to 50 percent of women in that period in Mesoamerica have been huntresses and regularly engage in hunts even for big game like mammoths. This stands opposite of common ideas about women being gatherers and men being hunters in the Palaeolithic age.

Jean-Sébastien Jacques has resigned as the CEO of Rio Tinto after the company destroyed a 46,000-year-old sacred aboriginal site in Australia. Jacques will leave once his successor is chosen or at the end of March 2021, whichever comes first.

The company also announced the departure of the head of the iron ore business, Chris Salisbury, and the group expand for corporate relations, Simone Niven.

Rio Tinto chairman Simon Thompson released a statement saying: "We are determined to ensure that the destruction of a heritage site of such exceptional archaeological and cultural significance never occurs again at a Rio Tinto operation."

A geologist has discovered a pair of fossil footprints that researchers say are the oldest of their kind in the Grand Canyon, dating back 313 million years.

Researchers said the fossils show two animals passing at different times along the slope of a sand dune.

The findings were published on Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.