Plucky paleoanthropologist Professor Lee Berger used Google Earth (from the comfort of his armchair) to find bones of an ancient human ancestor in South Africa. After isolating patterns in a region he thought most likely to house human remains, Berger led a small contingent (his dog, son and one student) to the caves and fossil sites. The hunch paid off: Berger discovered 50 previously unidentified caves and fossil sites, one of which contained perfectly preserved human remains dating back 2 million years. The compelling part of the discovery is that the fossils were not completely human, but rather a transitional species that could potentially tell us about human evolution.

One of the earliest incidences of Google Earth being used as an archaeological tool occurred in 2005. Ironically, the man responsible – Luca Mori – was simply using it to observe his local area. Instead, what he discovered was the location of an ancient Roman villa located near his home in Parma. The satellite imagery revealed a dark oval shape, which Mori mistook for a technological glitch. It wasn’t until after he alerted the National Archaeological Museum, and their expedition unearthed ancient ceramic pieces, that the site was confirmed as a villa from a Roman era before Christ.

War-torn and geographically treacherous, Mozambique provides numerous obstacles for explorers. But thanks to Google Earth, a British scientist, Julian Bayliss, stumbled upon the magnificent acres of rainforest in Mount Mabu – an area that had hitherto been unchartered. In 2008, a group of scientists embarked on an expedition and ended up finding over a hundred new species – plants, birds, butterflies, monkeys, snakes – in just three weeks.

Much like Mozambique, Saudi Arabia is a harsh terrain difficult for researchers and explorers. Earlier this year, a professor in Western Australia, David Kennedy, solved this dilemma by scouring the region via Google Earth and in the process uncovered over 2000 potential archaeological sites. The discovery unearthed thousands of prehistoric man-made stone structures – stone wheels, ancient animal traps, tombs shaped like kites – stretching from Syria to Yemen. Professor Kennedy believes these items to be over 9000 years old.

In 2008, scientists uncovered a buried pyramid in the Peruvian desert using Google Earth and some special algorithms. The pyramid is located underneath a crop field, a mile away from the famous Nazca Lines in the Cahuachi desert. Researchers used a combination of satellite imagery and infrared technology to peel away the top layer imagery and uncover the pyramid, which is said to extend over an area of 9000 square meters.