Despite the worldwide challenges of covid-19, 2020 was a busy year for caving news. We published four news round ups throughout the year, linked below, and here’s the last one for 2020. If you see anything you think we might have missed, do drop us a line. Many thanks to Herman de Swart for his continued support sending us links!
Cave Art
BBC News: Earliest art in the British Isles discovered on Jersey
Art News: Study of Neolithic Paintings in Spain Suggest Men and Women Made Art
Musée de Préhistoire Île-de-France: Les abris ornés du Mésolithique
Eurek!Alert!: Arnhem Land Maliwawa rock art opens window to past
Republic World: Newfound Australian cave art depicts man’s harmonious relationship with nature
EurekAlert!: Bison engravings in Spanish caves reveal a common art culture across ancient Europe
Earthlogs: Earliest sign of a sense of aesthetics
National Geographic: 400 years ago, visitors to this painted cave took hallucinogens
The Guardian: ‘Sistine Chapel of the ancients’ rock art discovered in remote Amazon forest
The Hill: Archeologists discover thousands of ancient rock wall paintings in Amazon forest
Live Science: Sprawling 8-mile-long ‘canvas’ of ice age beasts discovered hidden in Amazon rainforest
BBC News: Amazon rainforest rock art depicts giant Ice Age creatures
The Olive Press: Historic moment in Spain as first ever cave paintings found on La Palma island
Cave Archaeology
YouTube: William Buckland and the British Bone Caves
PlosOne: Fox dietary ecology as a tracer of human impact on Pleistocene ecosystems
Gismodo: Ancient DNA From Preserved Cave Lions Reveals They Were a Unique Species
Nature: Sifting through half a million years of human history
Cambridge Independent: How dangerous mission to Mexican cave uncovered evidence of people in Americas 15,000 years earlier than thought
New Scientist: Earliest known beds are 227,000-year-old piles of grass and ash
Gismodo: Scientists Found a 200,000-Year-Old Human Bed Made From Grass and Ash
EurekAlert! Science News: 200 000 years ago, humans preferred to kip cozy
The Conversation: Stone tools from a remote cave reveal how island-hopping humans made a living in the jungle millennia ago
EurekAlert!: How Neanderthals adjusted to climate change
American Scientist: In Bulgaria, a Cave of Many Questions
EurekAlert!: The oldest Neanderthal DNA of Central-Eastern Europe
Science Alert: Archaeologists Just Sequenced Some of The Oldest Neanderthal DNA Found in Europe
EurekAlert!: A 48,000 years old tooth that belonged to one of the last Neanderthals in Northern Italy
Discover Magazine: Did Neanderthals Really Live in Caves?
EurekAlert!: Modern humans reached westernmost Europe 5,000 years earlier than previously known
Yorkshire Live: The once hidden skeletons of lethal beasts unearthed in Yorkshire
The Times of Israel: Cave dwellers forged their tools in fire 300,000 years ago, Israeli study shows
Hominides: Salle des trésors – Musée de l’abbaye d’Arthous
Press and Journal: New book reveals ancient burial practices in Moray spanning more than 3,000 years
Greek Reporter: New Findings in Theopetra Cave Shed Light on Greece in Neolithic Era
EurekAlert!: New Denisovan DNA expands diversity, history of species
EurekAlert!: Denisovan DNA in the genome of early East Asians
EurekAlert!: Denisovan DNA found in sediments of Baishiya Karst Cave on Tibetan Plateau
Sunday Observer: A glimpse of the prehistoric rock cave
BBC News: Two-million-year-old skull of human ‘cousin’ unearthed
EurekAlert!: Newly discovered fossil shows small-scale evolutionary changes in an extinct human species
The Conversation: How midnight digs at a holy Tibetan cave opened a window to prehistoric humans living on the roof of the world
Science Alert: This Extinct Human Ancestor Evolved to Cope With Climate Change, But Didn’t Survive
EurekAlert!: Geoscientists discover Ancestral Puebloans survived from ice melt in New Mexico lava tubes
The Vintage News: Neanderthal Woman’s Walk of Love 90,000 Years Ago Between two Caves 65 Miles Apart
The Northern Echo: Whitby Museum: Hippo, rhino, elephant and hyena among cave bones
Inverse: Italy cave discovery shows Neanderthals had a surprisingly human feature
EurekAlert!: New evidence: Neandertals buried their dead
Science Direct: Hibernation in hominins from Atapuerca, Spain half a million years ago
Tehran Times: The seeds of civilization
Cornwall Live: Inside mysterious woodland cave where Neolithic axe was found
Earthlogs: How like the Neanderthals are we?
The Age: From the Archives, 1982: Back in Fraser Cave, after 14,500 years
Daily Mail Online: Oldest ever tool used by early humans dating back 350,000 years is found in an Israeli cave
Smithsonian Magazine: Ten New Things We Learned About Human Origins in 2020
Cave Exploration
ABC News: Richard Harris dives into the mind of risk-takers in a new podcast series Real Risk
Atlas Obscura: Veryovkina Cave – Gagra, Georgia
Red Bull: Cave diver legend Jill Heinerth’s best dives – photos
VNExpress International: Four days in the world’s largest cave
Forbes: Yes, The First Humans On Mars Should Consider Becoming Cave-Dwellers
Northwest Arkansaw Democrat Gazette: Henderson State professor writes guide to caving in the South
Spectator: Speleologists discovered kilometres of new corridors in Domica Cave
Red Bull: Diving into the underworld with the world’s leading underground astronauts
Le Dauphine: Au fil de l’eau. Le gouffre des mystères à Fontaine de Vaucluse
Wales Online: The hidden Gower caves that you probably never knew existed
European Space Agency: ESA – En route to exploring lunar caves
EOS: Planetary Cave Exploration Progresses
Total Croatia News: Croatian Speleologists Discover a Cave System Longer Than 52km Below Velebit
BBC News: Ridley Scott inspires Network Rail’s cave-exploring drone
About Her: Saudi Arabia’s Umm Jarasan Cave, The Longest In The Arab World
Spectator: Demänovský cave system became the longest cave of the Carpathians
Cave Science
EurekAlert!: Texas cave sediment upends meteorite explanation for global cooling
EurekAlert!: A new chemical analysis upends conventional explanation for global cooling
EurekAlert!: Cooling of Earth caused by eruptions, not meteors
The Conversation: From cave art to climate chaos: how a new carbon dating timeline is changing our view of history
EurekAlert!: Mother bats use baby talk to communicate with their pups
Wyoming Public Media: Nevada Caves Tell History Of Western Climate
Live Science: Entire cities could fit inside the moon’s monstrous lava tubes
EurekAlert!: Research links Southeast Asia megadrought to drying in Africa
Craven Herald: Millions of years of geology – a fascinating exploration of Ingleborough Cave
Science Alert: Earth’s Deepest Known Freshwater Cave Goes a Lot Deeper Than Anyone Ever Realised
Journal of Geophysical Research: Hypogenic Versus Epigenic Origin of Deep Underwater Caves Illustrated by the Hranice Abyss (Czech Republic)-The World’s Deepest Freshwater Cave – Klanica
The Globe and Mail: A tiny creature secures a big victory for conservation
EurekAlert!: How do stone forests get their spikes? New research offers pointed answer
Wiley Online Library: Palaeoenvironmental conditions during MIS 6/MIS 5 transition recorded in speleothems from the Tatra Mountains
BBC News: Covid: Why bats are not to blame, say scientists
Science Magazine: Double whammy doomed Madagascar’s giant birds and mammals
EurekAlert!: Humans and climate drove giants of Madagascar to extinction
EurekAlert!: DNA in fringe-lipped bat poop reveals unexpected eating habits
CBC News: Inside Alberta’s biggest bat cave
EurekAlert!: Vampire bats social distance when they get sick
EurekAlert!: Why do bats fly into walls?
EurekAlert!: Tiny cave snail with muffin-top waistline rolls out of the dark in Laos
Geographical Magazine: Hazel Barton: Combating antibiotic resistance through cave exploration
Carlsbad Current Argus: National Cave and Karst Institute to unveil Cave Exploratorium Exhibit
Mexico News Daily: Some of Mexico’s caves harbor an invisible enemy: histoplasmosis
PNAS: Ultra-sharp pinnacles sculpted by natural convective dissolution
Mirage News: Researchers join cavers to study elusive species on Christmas Island
EurekAlert: King of the Cave: New centipede on top of the food chain in the sulphurous-soaked Movile
Science Direct: Lava tubes on Earth, Moon and Mars: A review on their size and morphology revealed by comparative planetology
Exit: Hiking Adventure to Kabash Cave, a Hidden Mountain Gem
Cave Rescue
Belfast Telegraph: Elderly man rescued by coastguard after falling into cave close to Giant’s Causeway
The Guardian: Injured man in hospital after eight-hour rescue from remote cave in Tasmania
Vice: Thailand Opens Cave Replica to Recreate ‘Mission Impossible’
Daily Star: ‘The worst death imaginable’: The spelunker who got trapped upside down in a cave
Daily Star: Tourists gathered outside cave after spelunker Floyd Collins pinned by rocks just 50m from entrance
Daily Star: Spelunker who suffocated in nightmarishly narrow cave shaft as rescue rope failed
RTD: A dead caver became an attraction during the Kentucky Cave War
Euro Weekly News: Making it easier to rescue those lost in caves in the balearics
Keighley News: Royal Marines join forces with cave rescue after teenage girl falls on way down Whernside
Miscellaneous
Cumbria Crack: Unusual caving book scoops commendation
BBC News: Rio Tinto bosses lose bonuses over Aboriginal cave destruction
Derbyshire Live: Explorer’s shock as he finds 10ft snake skin in Derbyshire cave
Wittenburg University: Gone Caving!
Endless Thread: Tight Squeeze: The Claustrophobia-Inducing World Of Caving Yields Epic Rewards
The Herald: Five Scottish caves with eerie tales of mystery and adventure
The Mail: Woman with polio and claustrophobia faces fears in cave expedition
Somerset County Gazette: Somerset tourist attraction Cheddar Gorge and Caves will be closed ‘for forseeable future’
RTE: How Ireland’s revolutionaries used caves to hide people and arms
Wales Online: The secret caves of Dan yr Ogof that no one ever sees
E-flux: Reflections from the Cave
RTE: ‘Ireland’s gate to hell’: a Co Roscommon cave and the Otherworld
Popular Science: Look inside the hidden world of Earth’s most beautiful caves
The Guardian: I followed the magic of Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture into Fingal’s Cave
DARPA: DARPA Subterranean Challenge
Tehran Times: Lighting, infrastructure improved at Jurassic-era cave
Guardian Life: Caving Nigeria: 10 Caves You Should Know
Texas A&M Today: Texas A&M Cave Diver Featured In New Netflix Series
My London: The stunning cave full of crystals you can visit just 45 minutes from London
Ksat: Can show caves in Texas and around the world survive after COVID-19?
Euro News: Mythical grottos: The most famous caves in Greece
Classic FM: Andrea Bocelli sings ‘Silent Night’ in an empty cave, in haunting duet with echo
Sarajevo Times: Electrification of Tito’s Cave completed in Drva
Greek City Times: Kapsia Cave: A Mysterious Spectacle Full Of Stalactites And Stalagmites
