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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Climate scientists observed a peculiar cooling trend in Himalayan glaciers 10 years ago.</li><li>They now think the trend may be the result of intensifying winds that can reach over 100 mph.</li></ul><p>As climate change drives up <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/world-hottest-year-ever-history-climate-crisis-2024-1"><u>global average temperatures</u></a>, glaciers around the world's tallest mountains are actually getting slightly colder during the warm season, according to new research published in the peer-reviewed journal <a target="_blank" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=0dc6c70667802d4e1cc86e2680e319594ea03a739aff2e6ac33bfcabe6c49fbc&amp;postID=65c1565b2eedcd8f95e7e0a5&amp;postSlug=mount-everest-glaciers-scientists-find-peculiar-cooling-trend-2024-2&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41561-023-01331-y"><u>Nature Geoscience</u></a>.</p><p>Located on the southern face of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dead-bodies-on-mount-everest-are-hard-to-get-down-2019-5"><u>Mount Everest</u></a> along the Khumbu Valley about 3.1 miles above sea level, sits one of the world's few high-elevation science labs, called the Pyramid International Observatory.</p><p>It's been collecting hourly data on measurements like the mountain's air temperature, total precipitation, humidity, and wind speed since the early '90s. With nearly four decades of data in hand, scientists saw a strange pattern.</p><p>They found that the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/summer-2023-heat-wave-tracker-temperature-records-2023-5"><u>maximum daytime temperature</u></a> during the warmer months from May to October had decreased by around 0.040 °C per year over the last 15 years.</p><p>Was it a mistake? The researchers cross-checked the data with other weather stations around the southernmost stations of the Tibetan plateau. They realized that the cooling trend wasn't just limited to the glaciers around Mt. Everest; it was across the entire <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tibet-maybe-splitting-apart-himalayan-mountains-grow-tectonic-plates-study-2024-1"><u>Himalayas</u></a>.</p><p>But how could this be? After all, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/19/climate/himalayas-melting-water-source.html"><u>a report</u></a> published last year found that Himalayan <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/melting-glaciers-ice-sheets-sea-level-rise-climate-disaster-2022-12"><u>glaciers melted faster</u></a> between 2010 and 2019 than in the previous decade, suggesting the glaciers were getting warmer along with the rest of the world.</p><h2><strong>Blame the wind</strong></h2><div type="image" title="Snowy mountain peak." height="1411" width="2124" msid="107466546" hostid="261" sizebytes="252742"></div><p>Researchers think that this cooling trend is the result of a well-understood phenomenon called <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/frozen-russian-hikers-died-dyatlov-pass-avalanche-study-2021-2"><u>katabatic winds</u></a>.</p><p>On warm days, as sunlight heats the glaciers, the air just above the glacier's surface warms and rises. This creates a vacuum causing the cold air around the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-a-fall-from-denali-north-americas-tallest-peak-2022-7"><u>snowy peaks</u></a> to rush down due to gravity.</p><p>As the phenomenon intensifies, it creates local katabatic winds which typically peak in the afternoon and can reach speeds of over <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1657/AAAR00C-13-132"><u>100 mph</u></a>.</p><p>As average global temperatures rise worldwide, due to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/climate-action-30-global-leaders-climate-solutions-2023-11"><u>climate change</u></a>, katabatic winds are growing more intense because the more heat that's warming and rising from the mountain's surface, the more it forces cold air down. That's what's causing the cooling trend over the last 15 years, the researchers reported.</p><p>Moreover, the researchers think the chilly winds may have partly helped in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/antarctica-lost-enough-ice-cover-us-three-feet-water-2023-10"><u>slowing the melting</u></a> of these glaciers which otherwise could have been even worse.</p><p>But there is a catch.</p><p>The study also found that the lowest nighttime temperature during cold months (November to April) is on the rise. As the coldest nights are becoming less cold and warm month days are getting mildly cooler, the average temperature tends to balance out, giving a deceiving impression of the temperature trend.</p><p>That said, glaciers will continue to melt in the face of climate change because glacial melting is not just linked to air temperature close to the ice.</p><h2>Glaciers will continue to melt as global temperatures rise</h2><div type="image" title="A floating iceberg in Antarctica." height="1414" width="2121" msid="107466548" hostid="261" sizebytes="261860"></div><p>Ice can act like a buffer, absorbing some heat before increasing in temperature.</p><p>During the warm daylight hours, the glacier ice absorbs heat from the surrounding air. Then at night, the ice releases some of that stored heat energy, preventing the air temperature from dropping too low.</p><p>So the ice damps down the daily heat peaks and cold dips in the area right around the glacier.</p><p>That's why temperatures farther away from the glacier better reflect the true daily peaks and nighttime cooling which ends up influencing the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/melting-glaciers-unveil-dead-bodies-ancient-disease-and-more-2019-3">melting processes</a>.</p><p>"Understanding this whole process was a great relief," said Franco Salerno, lead author of the paper and an environmental scientist at the National Research Council, Institute of Polar Sciences, Milan.</p><p>His team had noticed the decreasing temperature trend in warmer months nearly 10 years ago but couldn't pin down the exact phenomenon. Now, more studies can focus on this local weather phenomenon.</p><p>Most importantly, the finding shows the role of glaciers in shaping <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mountains-switzerland-collapsing-from-permafrost-melt-2023-8">local mountain climates</a>. And that has had a huge impact on climbers.</p><h2>Rising risks for businesses</h2><div type="image" title="climbing everest" height="1867" width="1400" msid="107466549" hostid="261" sizebytes="138268"></div><p>The frigid, dense, high-speed katabatic winds can easily intensify — even reaching <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/climate-change-hurricanes-why-storms-are-wetter-stronger-slower-2019-7">hurricane speed</a>. As a result, these winds have a big impact on the local weather of the mountain.</p><p>As a result "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mount-everest-stories-from-climbers-2019-6">climbing has become much trickier</a> as our guides have to asses the route to the summit in each trip," said Gordon Janow, director of the mountain climbing guide service Alpine Ascents, who has been in the mountaineering industry for nearly four decades.</p><p>The terrain has also gotten more technical as melting glaciers open up <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/video-skier-sudden-15-foot-drop-into-hidden-crevasse-alps-2023-4">huge crevasses</a>.</p><p>"We have to go 100 yards to the right then cut back to the left then cut to the right," he said.</p><p>What was once a 10-hour journey to the summit can extend to 12 or even 14 hours. "Then, all of a sudden we may come across a glacier that we can't cross," Janow added. As a result, many mountains are not even climbed anymore.</p><p>The melting of glaciers triggered by such local weather phenomena has brought trouble to not only the Himalayas but mountains all over the world.</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mount-rainier-national-park-paradise-snowiest-place-us-2021-6">Mount Rainier</a>, for example, has traditionally served as a training ground for many mountaineers. "I have had people come in saying things like, 'My grandfather climbed Mount Rainier by himself in 1957. We're gonna do it.'," he said.</p><p>"But people fail to realize it's not your grandfather's mountain anymore," he said.</p>

Scientists discovered a surprising cooling trend on glaciers in Mount Everest 10 years ago. Now they think they know what's causing it.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Archaeologists have long debated when and how the first people made it to North America from Asia.</li><li>Researchers previously thought early humans crossed the Bering land bridge from Siberia to Canada 13,000 years ago.</li><li>But artifacts discovered in a Mexican cave shift the timeline, revealing people may have been in North America 30,000 years ago.</li><li>The land bridge was impassable at that time, so the research suggests the first Americans arrived by sea.</li></ul><p>New evidence suggests people have been living in North America twice as long as archaeologists previously thought.</p><p>Stone tools and artifacts discovered in a remote cave in Zacatecas, Mexico, offer evidence that humans were on the continent as far back as 32,000 years ago, during the last ice age.</p><p>That upends the idea that the first people arrived in North America between 18,000 and 13,000 years ago after continent-hopping from modern-day Siberia via the Bering land bridge. The new finding, described in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2509-0">a study</a> in the journal Nature on Wednesday, pushes that timeline back at least 15,000 years. It also shatters our previous understanding of how humans arrived in the North America: Since the land bridge was blocked during the last ice age and only opened after the ice started to recede, the new timeline means early people likely made their way on the ocean.</p><p>"We have enough evidence to challenge the existing paradigm," Ciprian Ardelean, the lead author of the new study, told Business Insider.</p><p><div type="image" title="archaeology cave north america" height="683" width="911" msid="77112054" hostid="261"></div></p><h2>A sheltered cave high in the mountains</h2><p>The 200-foot-wide cave in which Ardelean's team found the ancient tools, called Chiquihuite Cave, is nearly 9,000 feet up in the Astirello mountains. Locals in the area first guided him to the site in 2012, and there he found stone tools and traces of ash — evidence of early humans.</p><p>Ardelean returned with a team in 2016 and 2017 for further excavations, which yielded nearly 2,000 artifacts. They'd been buried 9 feet deep in the cave walls and floor. </p><p><div type="image" title="archaeology cave north america" height="1365" width="1820" msid="77112060" hostid="261"></div></p><p>The age of those artifacts suggests early people occupied Chiquihuite Cave on and off over 17,000 years — a period from about 30,000 to 13,000 years ago. Ardelean said it's likely humans used the site as a recurring shelter: a pit stop during seasonal migrations crisscrossing the continent.</p><p>The model this discovery challenges — that the first humans arrived in North America after crossing over land from Siberia — has been around since the 1930s. This line of thought suggests that humans slowly traversed southward, leaving behind distinct, grooved spear tips that became known as Clovis points.</p><p>It's known as the "Clovis-first" model of <keyword id="6360337" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="archaeology">archaeology</keyword>.</p><p><div type="image" title="Clovis points" height="565" width="1316" msid="77112066" hostid="261"></div></p><p>But starting in the mid-1970s, researchers began uncovering sites dating back more than 13,000 years. Those discoveries multiplied in subsequent decades. Scientists found fossilized human poop that's <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/320/5877/786.abstract">about 14,000 years old</a> in an Oregon cave. Artifacts from <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0141923">a settlement in southern Chile</a> were dated to be between 14,500 and 19,000 years old. A horse jaw bone that bore human markings suggested humans occupied the Bluefish Caves of Yukon, Canada <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0169486">24,000 years ago</a>.</p><p>But none of these discoveries pushed the timeline as far back as Ardelean's study.</p><p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2491-6">A second paper</a> published Wednesday throws even more cold water on the "Clovis-first" model. For that research, two archaeologists looked at artifacts and traces of human occupation from 42 sites across North America. By dating those findings, the researchers modeled how and when people dispersed across the continent. They concluded that humans were "probably present before, during, and immediately after the Last Glacial Maximum" — that's the peak of the last ice age, which occurred between 26,500 and 19,000 years ago.</p><p>"As these older-than-Clovis sites increased in number, most archaeologists came to reject the Clovis-first model," Ruth Gruhn, an archaeologist who was not involved in the study, told Business Insider via email. "These two papers in Nature will finally put an end to it."</p><p><div type="image" title="archaeology stone tool north america" height="2021" width="2695" msid="77112068" hostid="261"></div></p><p>She added, "the evidence now indicates that people have been in the western hemisphere at least twice as long as archaeologists and geneticists believed."</p><h2>The first people in the Americas didn't cross the Bering Land Bridge</h2><p>If humans were on the continent before or during the peak of the last ice age, they could not have come via the Bering Land Bridge, since it would have been partially submerged or blocked by impenetrable ice sheets.</p><p>"Just because the bridge is considered a standard entry doesn't mean it's the only one," Ardelean said, adding, "the panorama of human arrivals during the Last Glacial Maximum is much more complex than we thought."</p><p><div type="image" title="bering land bridge" height="385" width="569" msid="77112073" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Lorena Becerra-Valdivia, an archaeological scientist at the Universities of Oxford and New South Wales and the lead author of the second paper, told Business Insider that "the new findings suggest that humans likely took a coastal route." </p><p>That means they were probably seafarers who <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/08/most-archaeologists-think-first-americans-arrived-boat-now-they-re-beginning-prove-it">arrived by boat</a>, possibly from modern-day Russia or Japan. Then they expanded south by sailing down the Pacific Coast. </p><h2>A migratory people who hunted terrestrial animals to extinction</h2><p>Regardless of early humans' route to North America, both Ardelean and Becerra-Valdivia think they were anatomically modern humans.</p><p>"Neanderthals had already disappeared from the fossil record by the time Chiquihuite Cave was occupied," Becerra-Valdivia said.</p><p>The archaeologists' own experience in the cave suggests its sheltered location helped these early hunter-gatherers survive during the ice age. Ardelean said summers in the area were too wet to do field work, so they conducted research in the winter. Outside, he said, temperatures would be below freezing temperatures and snow would fall.</p><p>"But the cave itself is well insulated, so no matter what happens outside, you could be inside in just your T-shirt. That speaks of the cave's potential as a shelter," he said.</p><p>About 14,000 years ago, when the climate started to warm further, early humans were finally able to thrive and expand across the Americas. They were likely fearsome predators, Becerra-Valdivia said, hunting land mammals like horses, camels, and mammoths to extinction.</p><p><div type="image" title="An artist’s reconstruction, based on recently discovered footprints, of prehistoric humans in present-day New Mexico hunting a giant ground sloth." height="575" width="1023" msid="77112075" hostid="261"></div></p><p>"This expansion likely had a major role in the dramatic decline of megafauna in the region," she said.</p><p><a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/3/eaau4546">Some research</a> suggests early humans in South America may have even <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/giant-sloths-hunted-by-humans-bones-2019-3">butchered giant ground sloths</a>.</p>

Humans arrived in North America at least 15,000 years earlier than we thought, discoveries show — which suggests they came by boat

<ul><li>The OnePlus 8 will go on sale in India from 2:00 pm today.</li><li>Customers can avail an instant discount of ₹2,000 by using a SBI card.</li><li>The OnePlus 8 smartphone is priced starting at ₹41,999.</li></ul>Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus had announced the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro smartphones in India last month. The OnePlus 8 will be available in its first sale at 2:00 pm today from Amazon India.<br /><br />The delivery of non-essential items in red zones has been approved by the government starting from May 18. This has allowed the company to start selling the OnePlus 8 smartphone in the country.<br /><br /> <strong>OnePlus 8 pricing and availability<br /></strong><br /><table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.5pt;vertical-align:bottom;background-color:#000000;padding:0pt 5.75pt 0pt 5.75pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">OnePlus 8<br /><br /></td><td style="border-right:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.5pt;vertical-align:bottom;background-color:#000000;padding:0pt 5.75pt 0pt 5.75pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Price<br /><br /></td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.5pt;vertical-align:bottom;background-color:#d9d9d9;padding:0pt 5.75pt 0pt 5.75pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">6GB + 128GB<br /><br /></td><td style="border-right:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.5pt;vertical-align:bottom;background-color:#d9d9d9;padding:0pt 5.75pt 0pt 5.75pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">₹41,999<br /><br /></td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.5pt;vertical-align:bottom;padding:0pt 5.75pt 0pt 5.75pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">8GB + 128GB<br /><br /></td><td style="border-right:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.5pt;vertical-align:bottom;padding:0pt 5.75pt 0pt 5.75pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">₹44,999<br /><br /></td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.5pt;vertical-align:bottom;background-color:#d9d9d9;padding:0pt 5.75pt 0pt 5.75pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">12GB + 256GB<br /><br /></td><td style="border-right:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.5pt;vertical-align:bottom;background-color:#d9d9d9;padding:0pt 5.75pt 0pt 5.75pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">₹49,999<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />The OnePlus 8 will be available from Amazon India in Glacial Green, Interstellar Glow, and Onyx Black color options.<br /><br /><strong>OnePlus 8 launch offers<br /></strong><br />As part of an introductory offer, SBI card users can get flat ₹2,000 off on the OnePlus 8 smartphone. This offer is also valid on EMI transactions. Additionally, users who have pre-booked the device can get an additional ₹1,000 cashback as an Amazon Pay balance.<br /><br />Amazon offers a no-cost EMI option with up to 12 months terms on all major banks.<br /><br /><strong>OnePlus 8 specifications<br /></strong><br /><ul><li>6.55-inch Full HD+ Fluid AMOLED display with 90Hz refresh rate.</li><li>Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset coupled with up to 12GB of memory and 256GB of storage.</li><li>4,300mAh battery with 30T fast charging support.</li><li>Android 10 with Oxygen OS 10.</li><li>5G support.</li></ul>However, unlike the OnePlus 8 Pro, the standard OnePlus 8 has only three cameras on the back and one selfie camera. Here are the details:<br /><br /><table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.5pt;vertical-align:bottom;background-color:#000000;padding:0pt 5.75pt 0pt 5.75pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Camera<br /><br /></td><td style="border-right:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.5pt;vertical-align:bottom;background-color:#000000;padding:0pt 5.75pt 0pt 5.75pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Features<br /><br /></td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.5pt;vertical-align:bottom;background-color:#d9d9d9;padding:0pt 5.75pt 0pt 5.75pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">48MP primary<br /><br /></td><td style="border-right:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.5pt;vertical-align:bottom;background-color:#d9d9d9;padding:0pt 5.75pt 0pt 5.75pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">f/1.75 aperture<br /><br /></td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.5pt;vertical-align:bottom;padding:0pt 5.75pt 0pt 5.75pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">16MP ultra-wide angle<br /><br /></td><td style="border-right:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.5pt;vertical-align:bottom;padding:0pt 5.75pt 0pt 5.75pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">f/2.2 aperture<br /><br /></td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.5pt;vertical-align:bottom;background-color:#d9d9d9;padding:0pt 5.75pt 0pt 5.75pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">2MP macro camera<br /><br /></td><td style="border-right:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.5pt;vertical-align:bottom;background-color:#d9d9d9;padding:0pt 5.75pt 0pt 5.75pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">f/2.4 aperture<br /><br /></td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.5pt;vertical-align:bottom;padding:0pt 5.75pt 0pt 5.75pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">16MP primary (selfie)<br /><br /></td><td style="border-right:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.5pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.5pt;vertical-align:bottom;padding:0pt 5.75pt 0pt 5.75pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">f/2.45 aperture<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Connectivity options on the device include 4G VoLTE, NFC, Bluetooth 5.1, GPS and a USB Type-C port. Like its Pro sibling, it also has an in-display fingerprint sensor.<br /><br /><strong>See also:<br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/insider-picks/news/the-oneplus-8-is-the-iphone-11-of-the-android-world-maximum-power-and-almost-everything-you-want-for-a-lower-price-tag/articleshow/75763623.cms">The OnePlus 8 is the iPhone 11 of the Android world: maximum power and almost everything you want for a lower price tag</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/oneplus-8-oneplus-8-pro-packs-in-goodies-worth-4000-in-its-pop-up-box/articleshow/75320968.cms">OnePlus 8, OnePlus 8 Pro packs in goodies worth ₹4,000 in its Pop-up Box</a><br /><br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/the-two-new-oneplus-8-smartphones-were-just-announced-here-are-the-main-differences-you-need-to-know-about/articleshow/75146585.cms"><strong>The two new OnePlus 8 smartphones were just announced - here are the main differences you need to know about</strong></a><br />

OnePlus 8 with ₹2,000 discount, ₹1,000 cashback to go on sale today

<p><em><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Julie McMahon, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign</span></p><p class="caption">The extinct giant sloth was up to 13 feet tall.</p></div><p></p></div></div></strong></em></p><p> </p><ul class="summary-list"><li>In a sinkhole in Belize, scientists uncovered the remains of an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/r-giant-sloth-vs-ancient-man-fossil-footprints-track-prehistoric-hunt-2018-4">extinct giant sloth</a>.</li><li>These giant sloths went <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/animals-going-extinct-recovery-3-million-years-2018-10">extinct</a> between 14,000 and 10,000 years ago. They weighed more than an adult elephant.</li><li>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ap-la-tunnel-diggers-find-bone-of-ancient-giant-sloth-2017-6">sloth remains</a> included a 27,000-year-old tooth, arm bone, and leg bone. To excavate them, divers had to swim down to a clay shelf 70 feet below the surface.</li><li>A new study suggests these sloths were highly adaptable to changes in their climate and able to shift their diet depending on the season. </li></ul><p>Nearly 27,000 years ago, a giant ground sloth traveled across a barren, arid landscape in what is now Belize, munching on grassy vegetation and searching for water.</p><p>A nearby sinkhole may have promised relief, but the creature probably fell in and never came out.</p><p>In 2014, divers discovered the remains of that giant sloth buried in a clay shelf in a sinkhole 70 feet underwater. The researchers were searching for Mayan artifacts that may have been thrown into the pools, but instead uncovered part of the sloth's femur, a piece of arm bone, and a large tooth.</p><p><em><strong>Read More: </strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ap-la-tunnel-diggers-find-bone-of-ancient-giant-sloth-2017-6">LA tunnel diggers find bone of ancient giant sloth</a></em></p><p>That tooth - an impressive 4 inches long and 1 inch wide - was of particular interest to researchers, since it revealed new details about what these ancient creatures ate, <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/2/eaau1200">a new study reports</a>. The new analysis of the tooth found that these sloths' diets varied from season to season, which helped them survive their harsh environment.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Stan Ambrose, courtesy of Valley of Peace Archaeology</span></p><p class="caption">The sloth tooth is a little less than 4 inches long.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Diving for fossils 70 feet underwater</h2><p>Ancient ground sloths, officially called <em>Eremotherium laurillardi</em><span>,</span> were much larger than today's sloths - they could be up to 20 feet long from tip to tail, stand 13 feet tall, and weigh some 14,400 pounds.</p><p><span>They went extinct between 14,000 and 10,000 years ago, but the recently discovered tooth belonged to a sloth that lived 27,000 years ago, according to </span><span>carbon dating. </span></p><p><span>During that era, called the Last Glacial Maximum, glaciers were at their largest, sea levels were low, and much of the world - including present-day Belize - was dry, inhospitable, and cold. </span><span>Water was scarce, making sinkholes a valuable resource for giant sloths and other animals. Today, such sinkholes are called cenotes. </span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Jean Larmon, courtesy of Valley of Peace Archaeology</span></p><p class="caption">A drone shot of the pool in which divers found the tooth.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In 2014, divers searching for Mayan artifacts in one such cenote found something unexpected: animal bones.</p><p>"That's when they brought me in," Greg McDonald, a paleontologist with the US Bureau of Land Management, told Business Insider, adding, "we did some serious bushwhacking to carry our scuba gear and tanks of air through the jungle." </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Lisa J. Lucero, courtesy of Valley of Peace Archaeology</span></p><p class="caption">Part of an extinct giant sloth's upper humerus, which divers recovered during the 2014 excavation.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>McDonald worked as a diver on the expedition to bring up the first few specimens from the sinkhole. He and a fellow diver located the giant sloth tooth on their first dive.</p><p>"When we first went down, I thought 'Ok we'll find a few things,' but it was amazing - there was just so much bone down there," he said. "I was blown away," </p><p>McDonald estimated the sinkhole is around 200 feet deep, but said the clay shelf where they found the bones was about 70 feet down.</p><p>"At that depth, we're still getting enough light penetration from the surface that we get an indirect lighting effect," he said. "But we do bring lights when working near specimens because we want to make sure we don't knock any bones loose." </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Tony Rath, courtesy of Valley of Peace Archaeology</span></p><p class="caption">Diver Marty O'Farrell films fossils embedded in the sinkhole wall.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>McDonald thinks there could be more sloth bones buried at deeper depths in the hole, but he said the team has a lot to work with already. </p><p>"We didn't want to remove too many specimens yet," McDonald said. "We hope to get back down there within the year, if funding comes through."</p><p>Future research will involve returning to the clay shelf and mapping out where the remaining fossils are, then removing more specimens, he said.</p><h2>Giant sloths were adaptable to a harsh climate</h2><p><span>Jean Larmon, an anthropologist from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, analyzed the tooth after it was unearthed in order to pinpoint what seasons were like during the Last Glacial Maximum.</span></p><p><span> Larmon, the lead author of the <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/2/eaau1200">new study</a>, </span>analyzed the remaining dental tissue within the partially fossilized tooth to learn about what this sloth ate over the course of a year. </p><p>Her team's results suggests that the ancient sloth's diet changed between wet and dry seasons. <span>During the dry season, such sloths would have eaten vegetation and more scrub-like woody plants; then during the wet season, they'd shift to subsist more on grasses, shrubs, and possibly bromeliad flowers.</span></p><p>"This finding gives us a sense of the adaptability of these massive sloths," Larmon <span>told Business Insider. </span>"They were able to survive dramatic seasonality, with about a 9-month dry season and short 3-month wet season."</p><p><span>That ability to change what they ate from season to season helps explain why these creatures were so widespread and why they survived so long, <a href="https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/755918">according to study co-author Lisa Lucero</a> from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.</span></p><p>It's also a clue that when giant sloths did eventually go extinct - some 12,000 years after this particular sloth lived - it was probably because of something more than just changing climates.</p><p>"<span>One of those potential factors is the arrival of humans on the scene 12,000 to 13,000 years ago," Lucero said <a href="https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/755918">in a press release</a>.</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Alex McClelland / Bournemouth University</span></p><p class="caption">An artist's reconstruction, based on recently discovered footprints, of prehistoric humans in present-day New Mexico hunting a giant ground sloth.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Larmon thinks the sloths' extinction was likely the result of a combination of things, including human predation and environmental changes related to human land use, though she added climate likely played a part, too.</p>      <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sloths-slow-movement-camouflage-help-survive-2017-11">Sloths have been around for 64 million years - here's how they use their slow motion to their advantage</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

You Searched For "last glacial maximum" and got 4 results

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Divers found fossils of an ancient giant sloth hidden in a sinkhole. The creature was 20 feet long.

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