From USA Today (hat tip Floyd): Eric Stamatin and Andrew Gainariu were doing what 11-year-old boys do — fishing, catching crayfish and gathering sticks and rocks to build a dam at a stream near Eric’s home last June. But then the pair stumbled upon something that most sixth-graders only dream of — they discovered a 13,000- to 14,000-year-old American mastodon bone. “I thought it was a very weird rock,” Eric said this week from his Shelby Township home in suburban Detroit near where they found the bone in a stream.

The new Arizona Geology Magazine is out.

Interesting blog –  GREEN TEA AND VELOCIRAPTORS

From Geology.com: Are rock glaciers a mass of moving ice covered with a surface of rocks or are they a mass of rocks with interstitial ice? The collapse of a rock glacier in Colorado reveals the truth – at least for this rock glacier.

Via Sci News: The combined uranium/thorium/helium dating of minerals from the bottom of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the United States, indicates it was largely carved out by about 70 million years ago.

Via Examiner: Professor Gao Xing from the Laboratory of Human Evolution, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Dr. Peng Fei. Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, reported the discovery and verification of the first non-organic Paleolithic engraved artifact ever found in China in the Chinese Science Bulletin on November 29, 2012. The artifact came from Locality 1 of the Shuidonggou Paleolithic site. The markings were first observed but not noted as significant by French archaeologist Henry Breuil.

If you are interested in collecting fossils, minerals, crystals, agates and artifacts while experiencing some of the most breath-taking countryside and wonderfully hospitable cultures — then this ZRS Guided Adventure to exotic Morocco is right up your alley!  We at ZRS have a few openings still available for our new route scheduled for May 7th – 21st. During our ZRS Moroccan Collecting Adventures participants spend thirteen to sixteen active days immersed in delightful experiences ranging from visits to the enchanting cities of Marrakech and Rabat — as well as touring quaint southern villages and visiting remarkable Berber families in their goat-hair…

Via LatinoPost: (hat tip Floyd) New evidence from a recently-published scientific study indicates that humans started crafting stone-tipped weapons 200,000 years earlier than previously believed.  A team of scientists that included researchers from Arizona State University, the University of Toronto, and the University of Cape Town have uncovered signs of hafting, or the art of attaching a stone tip to a spear, at an archaeological site in South Africa called Kathu Pan 1. Hafting was a significant advancement in human weaponry and hunting since it made spears more lethal and durable.  “There is a reason that modern bow-hunters tip their…

Via Geology.com: Just as the energy industry needs to fill an enormous number of new jobs in the shale plays, the baby boomers start to retire.  

Via Science Daily (hat tip – Dave at the ESCONI Discussion Group) ScienceDaily (Oct. 23, 2012) — A team of researchers from North Carolina State University and the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) has found more evidence for the preservation of ancient dinosaur proteins, including reactivity to antibodies that target specific proteins normally found in bone cells of vertebrates. These results further rule out sample contamination, and help solidify the case for preservation of cells — and possibly DNA — in ancient remains.

Via Yahoo ESCONI Discussion Group from Science: Scientists have named a new species of horned dinosaur (ceratopsian) from Alberta, Canada. Xenoceratops foremostensis (Zee-NO-Sare-ah-tops) was identified from fossils originally collected in 1958. Approximately 20 feet long and weighing more than 2 tons, the newly identified plant-eating dinosaur represents the oldest known large-bodied horned dinosaur from Canada.