In a newly published study, researchers analyzed modern human teeth, finding that material loss protects teeth against fatigue failure. Scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt together with dental technicians have digitally analyzed modern human teeth using an engineering approach, finite element method, to [...]

A nearly 400,000 year old human fossil discovered in a Serbian cave is helping scientists shed new light on human evolution. Winnipeg, MB – A fossil fragment of a human lower jaw recovered from a Serbian cave is the oldest human ancestor found in this part of Europe. The newly obtained radiometric date of the [...]

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute have discovered that cooperative relationships between chimpanzees are facilitated by an endocrinological mechanism involving the hormone oxytocin, even when these are between non-kin. Animals which maintain cooperative relationships show gains in longevity and offspring survival. However, little is known about the cognitive or hormonal mechanisms involved in cooperation. Researchers [...]

A new study has calculated the energetic cost of growing a bigger brain. If humans had been eating a raw food diet exclusively, they would have had to spend more than 9 hours a day eating in order to get enough energy from unprocessed raw food alone to support their large brains. The scientists published [...]

Computer simulations have been used to examine the sex lives of ancient hominids for many years, by measuring the circumferences of ancient bones, and by applying the rules of evolution and economics. Currently, only 1 in 6 societies enforces monogamy as a rule. There’s evidence of monogamy going back as far as Hammurabi’s Code, dating [...]

After having put young adults with normal vision through a battery of tests, scientists were able to conclude that females are better at discriminating among colors, while males excel at tracking fast-moving objects and discerning detail from a distance. These evolutionary adaptations might be linked to the hunter-gatherer past of humans. The scientists published their [...]

A newly published study compares the Denisovan genome with those of the Neandertals and eleven modern humans from around the world, finding that modern populations from the islands of southeastern Asia share genes with the Denisovans and that the genomes of people from East Asia and South America include slightly more genes from Neandertals than [...]

Biologists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have completed the sequencing and analysis of the genome of the bonobo, finding that the bonobo differs by approximately 1.3% from humans. In a project led by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, an international team of scientists has completed the sequencing and [...]

Ötzi’s DNA has finally been sequenced. An international team published the almost complete DNA of the Iceman Ötzi from the Tyrolean Alps in the journal Nature Communications. The Iceman’s 5,300-year-old body was discovered in 1991 by hikers near the Italian-Austrian border in the Alps. It was well preserved and has become one of the most [...]

While it’s expected that the animal kingdom is a fierce place, where aggression for survival dominates, a new study on bonobos (Pan paniscus) published in January 20th’s Animal Behaviour suggests that some animals outcompete others by becoming ‘nicer’. It’s most apparent in bonobos, which are a close cousin to chimpanzees. Unlike chimps, which can be [...]