Long before people were toting around Kindles as a portable reading device, early man had to resort to something a little more archaic, but no less effective: eggshells.

The eggshells were probably used as containers, and the markings may have indicated either the shells’ contents or their owner. Texier points out that until recently, bushmen in the region carved geometric motifs on ostrich eggshells as a mark of ownership.

If the symbols do signify ownership, it could have implications for the evolution of human cognition. Iain Davidson, an Australian rock art specialist at the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales, has suggested that marking ownership must have come after humans became self-aware. The eggshells could help to illuminate when this happened in this part of the world, he says.

Written language may have evolved more than once in human history. “Judging from what we know about the evolution of art all over the world, there may have been many traditions that were born, lasted for some time and then vanished,” says Jean Clottes, former director of research at the Chauvet caves in southern France. “This may be one of them, most probably not the first and certainly not the last.”

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A glimpse into the ancient past has been revealed by the discovery of a 600,000 year-old leaf beetle. The remains of the beetle were well-preserved, thanks to a perfect mix of water and acidic levels. This allowed the true color of the leaf beetle to remain intact, just as it appear 600,000 years ago.

Parker told Discovery News that “these fossils are important because, rather than simply predicting that relatives of animals today were similarly colored, we can prove it.”

Parker, who authored the book “In the Blink of an Eye,” has extensively studied color and its connection to the emergence of vision in the animal kingdom.

“Since vision evolved, everything has been fully adapted to the presence of a retina, adapted in terms of their color, shape and behavior,” he said. “Prior to the first highly mobile predator with vision, the rules would have been much different, and indeed we know from fossils that animal forms and ecology were much different.”

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New research has revealed the ancient Mayans to be even more advanced than originally thought. Studies at Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico reveal this one-time city of 1,500 structures and 6,000 people not only had an intricate water management system but may have had toilets.

“This finding is yet another technological achievement made by the Maya independently of the Old World,” French said. “The Maya of Palenque had water pressure technology by 750 AD at the very latest and most likely much earlier.”

French noted it has been speculated for decades that the palace in Palenque had running water for toilets. “Getting running water to the palace was impossible without water pressure,” he said. Because of this new find, “the toilet theory isn’t so far-fetched.”

Running water would have been a luxury, not a necessity.

“I actually think that the creation of water pressure at Palenque was a sign of wealth,” French said. “It was definitely not necessary. They had water everywhere. The Maya of Palenque were never more than 150 meters (492 feet) from a source of water. Water pressure technology would have been useful through the display of power and knowledge, similar to how priests and shamans used astronomical events.”

There may be other examples of Precolumbian water pressure throughout the Americas that have been unseen or misidentified, French said. For instance, ceramic tubes have been found at several sites throughout central Mexico.

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It’s known as Palmer’s Oak for people who would rather not use its braniac name: Quercus Palmeri. The recently discovered Palmer’s Oak, found in suburban southern California, is estimated at 13,000 years old!

The team estimated that the newly discovered oak, which they named the Jurupa Oak after the mountains in which it grows, started from a central trunk and grew outward at a rate of one-twentieth of an inch each year, relying on fire to burn down stems and trigger the plant to send out new sprouts. The team’s findings are reported in the online journal PLoS One.

But any trace of ancient wood has been lost to termites, so they team is left with a guess. It could be anywhere from 5,000 to 30,000 years old, Ross-Ibarra said, dating to a time when the Jurupa Mountains were cooler and wetter, and Palmer’s oaks were prevalent.

“If they’re right about how the oak regenerates, then their age estimate seems valid and true,” Jennifer DeWoody of the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom said. “This could be a very old tree.”

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