This may be the oldest, most complete Neandertal fingerprint ever seen

carbon dating: Short for radioactive-carbon dating or carbon-14 dating. A way to measure the age of organic materials — ones containing carbon. Carbon-14, a weakly radioactive isotope, forms in Earth’s upper atmosphere as cosmic rays hit nitrogen atoms. This carbon joins with oxygen to form carbon dioxide, which living organisms take up and incorporate in their tissues. When those organisms die, they stop exchanging carbon with the environment and the share of the carbon-14 isotope starts to fall at a constant rate (one set by the law of radioactive decay). By measuring the share of carbon-14  to carbon-12 in the organism’s remains, scientists can determine how long ago it died.

database: An organized collection of related data.

forensic: An adjective referring to the use of science and technology to investigate and solve crimes.

granite: A type of hard igneous rock, which contains coarse-grained inclusions (essentially mini rocks within a rock) of various minerals, chiefly quartz, feldspar and mica.

mineral: Crystal-forming substances that make up rock, such as quartz, apatite or various carbonates. Most rocks contain several different minerals mish-mashed together. A mineral usually is solid and stable at room temperatures and has a specific formula, or recipe (with atoms occurring in certain proportions) and a specific crystalline structure (meaning that its atoms are organized in regular three-dimensional patterns).

Neandertal: A species (Homo neanderthalensis) that lived in Europe and parts of Asia from about 200,000 years ago to roughly 28,000 years ago.

ochre: Soil that’s naturally pigmented with iron oxide. Some types have a chalk base; others are based in fine soil grains known as clay. Ancient peoples used this natural coloring — which can range in hue from deep red or brown to pale yellow or even purple — for a range of cultural practices.

pareidolia: The phenomenon where people see a a pattern or meaning where none really exists. One example: Seeing a face when when you look at the moon. The craters that give rise to the “features” are in fact randomly placed.

random: Something that occurs haphazardly or without reason, based on no intention or purpose. Or an adjective that describes some thing that found itself selected for no particular reason, or even chaotically.

resin: A sticky, sometimes aromatic substance, often secreted by plants. It may also be the viscous starting ingredient for some plastics that will harden when heated or treated with light.

stencil: A picture or pattern that is created by temporarily holding a shape or cutout against a surface and then applying some paint or pigment along the internal or external edges of that shape or cutout. If paint is applied along the outside edges, the surface will depict the unpainted shape of the object, with sharply defined, clean internal edges. If a cutout is used, the painted shape will depict the pattern of the cutout, with sharply defined, clean external edges.

unique: Something that is unlike anything else; the only one of its kind.

wavelength: The distance between one peak and the next in a series of waves, or the distance between one trough and the next. It’s also one of the “yardsticks” used to measure radiation. Visible light — which, like all electromagnetic radiation, travels in waves — includes wavelengths between about 380 nanometers (violet) and about 740 nanometers (red). Radiation with wavelengths shorter than visible light includes gamma rays, X-rays and ultraviolet light. Longer-wavelength radiation includes infrared light, microwaves and radio waves.