If you want to understand an ecosystem, look at what the species within it eat. In studying food webs—how animals and plants in a community are connected through their dietary preferences—ecologists ...

At first glance, it might seem that archaeology and ecology don't have much in common. One unearths the ancient human past; the other studies the interactions of living organisms. But taking the long ...

Discovering how ancient civilizations ate helps us truly understand what life was like before our time. Sometimes, those insights come from ancient food itself, left behind in traces on used cookware.

Snails, ground fava beans, pork and wine were staples of the 2,000-year-old fast-food stalls uncovered in Ancient Pompeii. Ancient ruins in Pompeii, Roman town near modern Naples destroyed and buried ...

The ancient Romans loved their birds. They rated owls as omens, valued geese as guards, kept chickens for divination, and raised peafowl for food. As for the thrush, a plumb avian of the passerine ...

Something fascinating is happening in kitchens around the world. While everyone was busy perfecting their sourdough starters during quarantine, a much bigger food revolution was quietly brewing.

Unearthed from the graves of children, many ceramic baby bottles from thousands of years ago would look perfectly at home in nurseries today. Some have little feet, and one bottle’s spout juts from a ...

Webs aren’t just for spiders. They can, in fact, describe vast networks of interconnected relationships within ecosystems, based on the food preferences of plants and animals. Understanding a “food ...

Studying ancient food webs can help scientists reconstruct communities of species, many long extinct, and even use those insights to figure out how modern-day communities might change in the future.