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GunaiKurnai Cave Rituals Reveal 25,000 Years

New research across multiple studies shows that GunaiKurnai ancestors collected and burned whole grasses in Cloggs Cave near Buchan, preserving burnt grass layers and phytoliths for up to 25,000 years, signaling long-running ritual practices tied to magic, healing, and curses. The findings, built on collaboration with GunaiKurnai community representatives and analysis of microscopic plant remains, deepen understanding of ceremonial life in GunaiKurnai country and its continuity across generations.

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Photo: Veszprémi Állatkert / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Monkeys, Children Share Geometry Intuition

New research across several studies shows that baboons and macaques understand geometric relationships in ways that closely resemble how preschoolers and adults reason about shapes, challenging the view that geometry is uniquely human. The findings, drawn from touchscreen shape-matching tasks and cross-cultural samples including the Tsimane’ and Mundurucu, suggest geometry intuition is a shared feature of the primate mind, not a product of formal education alone.

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