100,000-year-old human skulls from east Asia reveal complex mix of trends in...
Two partial archaic human skulls, from the Lingjing site, Xuchang, central China, provide a new window into the biology and populations patterns of the immediate predecessors of modern humans in...
View ArticleDental plaque DNA shows Neandertals used 'aspirin'
Ancient DNA found in the dental plaque of Neandertals - our nearest extinct relative - has provided remarkable new insights into their behaviour, diet and evolutionary history, including their use of...
View ArticleNew skulls from China have scientists and the media in a muddle
Just a decade ago we thought we had solved the mystery of mysteries. We were confident we had finally puzzled out the evolutionary origins of modern humans.
View ArticleHow molecular clocks are refining human evolution's timeline
DNA holds the story of our ancestry – how we're related to the familiar faces at family reunions as well as more ancient affairs: how we're related to our closest nonhuman relatives, chimpanzees; how...
View ArticleEarly culture shaped by migration and population growth
Something odd happened in the transition from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic, around 50,000 years ago. Modern humans and their immediate ancestors had been using tools for a few million years...
View ArticleChanges in Early Stone Age tool production have 'musical' ties
New research suggests that advances in the production of Early Stone Age tools had less to do with the evolution of language and more to do with the brain networks involved in modern piano playing.
View ArticleHomo naledi's surprisingly young age opens up more questions on where we come...
Scientists today announced that the Rising Star Cave system has revealed yet more important discoveries, only a year and a half after it was announced that the richest fossil hominin site in Africa had...
View ArticleThe 'obsession' that changed human history
An "obsession" with the lower jaw of a long-dead human, unearthed in the 1960s at a prehistoric Moroccan campsite, led palaeoanthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin to the discovery of a lifetime.
View ArticleResearchers find biomarker in deciduous teeth for establishing the age of...
(Phys.org)—The transition from breastfeeding to a nonmilk diet is a developmental milestone, influencing future health and survival of mammals, including humans. Breast milk is highly beneficial to...
View ArticleScientists are reconstructing the relationship between modern humans and...
The Neanderthals and modern humans must have co-existed in Europe for several thousand years. What happened when they encountered each other and how they influenced one another are riveting questions....
View ArticleThe story of music is the story of humans
How did music begin? Did our early ancestors first start by beating things together to create rhythm, or use their voices to sing? What types of instruments did they use? Has music always been...
View ArticleDNA of early Neanderthal gives timeline for new modern human-related...
Ancient mitochondrial DNA from the femur of an archaic European hominin is helping to resolve the complicated relationship between modern humans and Neanderthals. The genetic data recovered by the...
View ArticleBuried tools and pigments tell a new history of humans in Australia for...
The question of when people first arrived in Australia has been the subject of lively debate among archaeologists, and one with important consequences for the global story of human evolution. Australia...
View ArticleIn saliva, clues to a 'ghost' species of ancient human
In saliva, scientists have found hints that a "ghost" species of archaic humans may have contributed genetic material to ancestors of people living in Sub-Saharan Africa today.
View ArticleNew look at archaic DNA rewrites human evolution story
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the ancestors of modern humans diverged from an archaic lineage that gave rise to Neanderthals and Denisovans. Yet the evolutionary relationships between these...
View ArticleOld teeth from a rediscovered cave show humans were in Indonesia more than...
Modern humans were present in Southeast Asia about 20,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to new evidence published in Nature today.
View ArticleYou and some 'cavemen' get a genetic checkup
Had an arrow in his back not felled the legendary Iceman some 5,300 years ago, he would have likely dropped dead from a heart attack. Written in the DNA of his remains was a propensity for...
View ArticleNew dating of Neanderthal remains from Vindija Cave finds them older than...
(Phys.org)—An international team of researchers has conducted a new test of Neanderthal remains found at Vindija Cave in Croatia and found them to be older than previous studies indicated. In their...
View ArticleWhat dental remains from Homo naledi can tell us
Anthropologists just love to sink their teeth into a good mystery, and some recent research from NC State and Vassar College has done just that – by looking at what dental development in Homo naledi...
View ArticleNeanderthal boy's skull grew like a human child's: study
The first analysis of a Neanderthal boy's skull uncovered in Spain suggests that he grew much like a modern boy would, in another sign that our extinct ancestors were similar to us, researchers said...
View ArticleModern humans emerged more than 300,000 years ago, new study suggests
A genomic analysis of ancient human remains from KwaZulu-Natal revealed that southern Africa has an important role to play in writing the history of humankind. A research team from Uppsala University,...
View ArticleNo signs of incest in new Neanderthal woman genome
A complete genetic analysis of a Neanderthal woman whose remains were found in a cave in Croatia shows no apparent incest in her ancestry, contrary to a previous specimen, researchers said Thursday.
View ArticleHow Neanderthals influenced human genetics at the crossroads of Asia and Europe
When the ancestors of modern humans migrated out of Africa, they passed through the Middle East and Turkey before heading deeper into Asia and Europe.
View ArticleCold temperatures found to cause nasal structure similarities between...
(Phys.org)—An international team of researchers has found that Neanderthals and modern humans both evolved in ways that allowed for better breathing through the nose in a cold climate. In their paper...
View ArticleSlow flow of human immigration may have doomed Neanderthals
What killed off the Neanderthals? It's a big debate, and now a study says that no matter what the answer, they were doomed anyway.
View ArticleRevising the story of the dispersal of modern humans across Eurasia
Most people are now familiar with the traditional "Out of Africa" model: modern humans evolved in Africa and then dispersed across Asia and reached Australia in a single wave about 60,000 years ago....
View ArticleWhat we know so far about where humans come from
The question of where we humans come from is one many people ask, and the answer is getting more complicated as new evidence is emerging all the time.
View ArticleAncient Eurasian DNA sequencing is revealing links with modern humans
Until recently, very little was known about the genetic relationship between modern humans of the Upper Paleolithic age (the period of time between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago, also called the Late...
View ArticleScientists discover oldest known modern human fossil outside of Africa
A large international research team, led by Israel Hershkovitz from Tel Aviv University and including Rolf Quam from Binghamton University, State University of New York, has discovered the earliest...
View ArticleHomo sapiens' drawing ability may relate to hunting techniques
Neanderthals had large brains and made complex tools but never demonstrated the ability to draw recognizable images, unlike early modern humans who created vivid renderings of animals and other figures...
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