A “remarkably complete” 3.8-million-year-old skull of an early human has been unearthed in Ethiopia, scientists announced Wednesday, a discovery that has the potential to alter our understanding of human evolution. The skull, known as “MRD”, was discovered not far from the younger Lucy — the ancient ancestor of modern humans — and shows that the two species may have co-existed for about 100,000 years. “This skull is one of the most complete fossils of hominids more than 3 million years old,” said Yohannes Haile-Selassie, the renowned Ethiopian paleoanthropologist of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History who is a co-author of two studies published Wednesday in the journal Nature. It “looks set to become another celebrated icon of human evolution,” joining the ranks of other high-profile hominid findings, Fred Spoor of the Natural History Museum of London wrote in a commentary accompany

The High Museum of Art announced today that Atlanta-based philanthropists Doris and Shouky Shaheen have donated their entire impressionist, post-impressionist and modernist painting collection, totaling 24 artworks, to the Museum. The Shaheen gift is one of the most significant groups of European paintings ever to enter the Museum’s collection, rivaled only by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation donation in 1958, which established the core of the High’s European art holdings. This marks the High’s first acquisition of paintings by renowned artists such as Henri Fantin-Latour, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani and Alfred Sisley. “We are exceptionally grateful for the generosity of this landmark gift,” said Rand Suffolk, Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr., director of the High. “The Shaheens’ contribution single-handedly elevates the quality of our European collection and will greatly enhance the visitor experie

Sheldon Museum of Art at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln opens five exhibitions that reflect the world today and explore life from diverse perspectives, shedding light on issues including migration and the complexities of lived experience. The exhibitions on view from August 9 through December 31 are: Unquiet Harmony: The Subject of Displacement – Featuring works by painter Carlos Alfonzo, multimedia artist Tiffany Chung, and the artistic collective SUPERFLEX, “Unquiet Harmony: The Subject of Displacement” focuses on the personal, environmental, and economic factors that prompt migration. Chung and SUPERFLEX posit that finding and arriving at a new home is not always a given, and Alfonzo’s work presents the unquiet harmony of one who continues to feel out of place in a new home.

Because of its tremendous resemblance, paleontologists thought of naming this new species in allusion to Scrat, the renowned squirrel-like character with saber teeth in the movie, Ice Age. Although they finally named it Pseudotherium argentinus, meaning, false Theria from Argentina. The entire skull is less than six centimeters in length and was found in Ischigualasto with two of the oldest dinosaurs known to date. Dr. Ricardo Martínez, a researcher at the Institute and Museum of Natural Sciences of the University of San Juan (IMCN), told the Agency CTyS-UNLaM: “The new species has a very long, flat, and shallow snout, and its very long fangs located almost at the tip of the snout, so the resemblance [to Scrat] is tremendous”. The skull was surprisingly well preserved, so that, at first glance, the similarity was obvious. “At some point, I thought of calling it Scrat,” said Martinez, who conducted a very thorough study of the skull of this mammaliamorph (mammal-relative) alon