{
  "id": 19692011,
  "title": "Discoveries from a 125,000-year-old lakeshore reveal life in a greener Arabia",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/12/discoveries-from-a-125-000-year-old-lakeshore-reveal-life-in-a",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-11-12T19:04:14.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Conversation AU",
    "slug": "the-conversation-au",
    "url": "https://theconversation.com/discoveries-from-a-125-000-year-old-lakeshore-reveal-life-in-a-greener-arabia-293952"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "About 125,000 years ago, Arabia's Empty Quarter or Rub’ al Khali endured a vastly different landscape due to a freshwater lake in the Mundafan basin. Hippos inhabited its waters, while huge buffalo, gazelles, and oryx roamed the surrounding grasslands. Ancient people settled alongside the shore and left behind stone tools, which still bear microscopic traces of their activities. An international team, in a study published in Science, has uncovered how these early humans utilized stone points as hunting weapons and processed plants. The chemical traces on some stone points indicate they employed plant poisons to hunt. These findings provide a rare glimpse into life in Arabia during a crucial stage of human expansion beyond Africa, shedding light on the skills and resources that enabled humans to survive in a now-deserted region.",
  "summary": "Tools, plants and animal remains found in the desert reveal a lush landscape where people once thrived.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}