Scientists Reveal How a Fatty Diet Helped Develop Bigger Brains
Long before human ancestors began hunting large mammals for meat, a fatty diet provided them with the nutrition to develop bigger brains, posits a new…
Evolutionary Anthropology
Drying, Less Predictable Climate May Have Spurred Human Evolution
A progressively drying climate punctuated by variable wetter episodes may have precipitated the transition from our hominin ancestors to anatomically modern humans, according to research…
6,500 Year-Old Human Remains Point to Origin of Ancient Culture
Skeletons buried in Israel’s Upper Galilee reveal migration from ancient Turkey and Iran, TAU researchers say. An international team of researchers from Tel Aviv University,…
Scientists Show Laziness Lead to the Extinction of Primitive Humans
New archaeological research from The Australian National University (ANU) has found that Homo erectus, an extinct species of primitive humans, went extinct in part because…
Scientists Reveal Homo Sapiens’ Secret of Success
A new study argues that the greatest defining feature of our species is not ‘symbolism’ or dramatic cognitive change, but rather its unique ecological position…
Hepatitis B Was Circulating in Europe 7,000 Years Ago
An international team of scientists led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the University of Kiel has…
Why Expressive Eyebrows Mattered in Human Evolution
New research from the University of York suggests that highly mobile eyebrows, which can be used to express a wide range of subtle emotions, may…
New Dating Techniques Show Germany Was Covered by Glaciers 450,000 Years Ago
Using state-of-the-art dating techniques researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have obtained new chronological data for the timing of…
New Evidence of Early Human Innovation Pushes Back Evolutionary Timeline
An international collaboration, including the Natural History Museum of Utah at the University of Utah, has discovered that early humans in eastern Africa had—by about…
Scientists Reveal the Genetic Timeline of Ancient Vanuatu People
Researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) have helped put together the most comprehensive study ever conducted into the origins of people in Vanuatu –…
Study Shows 300,000-Year-Old South African Hominin Ate a Lot of Dust
Homo naledi’s relatively taller and more wear resistant molars enabled it to have a much more abrasive diet than other South African hominins. This is…
Ancient DNA Study Reveals the Genomic History of Southeastern Europe
In an ancient DNA study published this week in the journal Nature, scientists and archaeologists from over 80 different institutions lift the veil on the…
Scientists Reveal the Complex Story Behind the Beaker Phenomenon
In the largest study of ancient DNA ever conducted, an international team of scientists has revealed the complex story behind one of the defining periods…
Neanderthals Produced Symbolic Objects More than 115,000 Years Ago
At least 70,000 years ago Homo sapiens used perforated marine shells and colour pigments. From around 40,000 years ago he created decorative items, jewellery and…
Anthropologists Shed New Light on Prehistoric Human Migration
Two University of Wyoming researchers contributed to a new study in which DNA of ancient skeletal remains of people from southeastern Europe were used to…
Global Demand for Natural Resources Causes Dramatic Decline of Bornean Orangutans
Nearly 50 years of conservation efforts have been unable to prevent orangutan numbers on Borneo from plummeting. The latest data published by a team from…
Scientists Reveal the Evolution of Modern Human Brain Shape
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, reveal how and when the typical globular brain shape of modern humans evolved….
Biologists Reveal How Common Treeshrews Break Evolutionary ‘Rules’
A new study has exposed the common treeshrew, a small and skittish mammal that inhabits the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, as an ecogeographical rule…