Early Humans News

July 10, 2016

Cannibalism Among Neanderthals

Prehistoric Tombs Enhanced Astronomical Viewing

Fire Discovery Sheds Light On 'Hobbit' Demise

Mammals Evolved Faster After Dinosaur Extinction

Latest Headlines

updated 12:58pm EDT

Ancient 'Deep Skull' from Borneo Full of Surprises

June 27, 2016 — A new study of the 37,000-year old remains of the 'Deep Skull' -- the oldest modern human discovered in island South-East Asia -- has revealed this ancient person was not ... read more

Researchers Find Highland East Asian Origin for Prehistoric Himalayan Populations

June 20, 2016 — Researchers have conducted the first ancient DNA investigation of the Himalayan arc, generating genomic data for eight ... read more

Ancient DNA Shows Perfect Storm Felled Ice Age Giants

June 17, 2016 — Giant Ice Age species including elephant-sized sloths and powerful sabre-toothed cats that once roamed the windswept plains of Patagonia, southern South America, were finally ... read more

Ancient DNA Analysis Explains Spread of Domestic Goats from Fertile Crescent Into Caucasus

June 13, 2016 — Researchers have analyzed ancient DNA of Neolithic domestic goats to reveal that the goats were introduced into the Southern ... read more

Bacteria Perfected Protein Complexes More Than 3.5 Billion Years Ago

June 9, 2016 — Researchers are resurrecting ancient bacterial protein complexes to determine how 3.5-billion-year-old cells functioned versus cells of today. Surprisingly, they are not that ... read more

New Research Counters Claim That the 'Hobbit' Had Down Syndrome

June 8, 2016 — Analysis of a wealth of new data contradicts an earlier claim that LB1, an ~80,000 year old fossil skeleton from the Indonesian island of Flores, had Down syndrome, and ... read more

New Support for Human Evolution in Grasslands

June 6, 2016 — Buried deep in seabed sediments off east Africa, scientists have uncovered a 24-million-year record of vegetation trends in the region where humans evolved. The authors say ... read more

'Pristine' Landscapes Haven't Existed for Thousands of Years Due to Human Activity

June 6, 2016 — 'Pristine' landscapes simply do not exist anywhere in the world today and, in most cases, have not existed for at least ... read more

Research Proves Aboriginal Australians Were First Inhabitants

June 6, 2016 — Researchers have found evidence that demonstrates Aboriginal people were the first to inhabit Australia.The work refutes an earlier landmark study that claimed to recover DNA ... read more

Lucy Had Neighbors: A Review of African Fossils

June 6, 2016 — If 'Lucy' wasn't alone, who else was in her neighborhood? Key fossil discoveries over the last few decades in Africa indicate that multiple early human ancestor species lived ... read more

Aboriginal Australians Had an Axe to Grind

Israel Divers Find Ancient Marine Cargo in Mediterranean

Remnants of Ancient Rome Found Off Coast of Israel

Wind Energy Converter Inspired by Ancient Boats

Inbred Neanderthals Left Humans a Genetic Burden

June 6, 2016 — The Neanderthal genome included harmful mutations that made the hominids around 40 percent less reproductively fit than modern humans, according to new estimates. Non-African humans inherited some of ... read more

Neanderthals Used Fire in Caves: French Cave Sheds New Light on the Neanderthals

June 1, 2016 — Deep inside Bruniquel Cave, in the Tarn et Garonne region of southwestern France, a set of human-made structures 336 meters from the entrance was recently dated as being approximately 176,500 years ... read more

Back to the Future: Space-Age Exploration for Pre-Historic Bones

May 31, 2016 — Scientists roped in the use of high-tech laser scanning, photogrammetry and 3-D mapping technology to map Homo naledi's Dinaledi ... read more

Migration Back to Africa Took Place During the Palaeolithic

May 26, 2016 — A research group has managed to retrieve the mitochondrial genome of a fossil 35,000 years old found in the Pestera Muierii cave in Romania. That woman was part of the first population of our species ... read more

Ancient DNA Study Finds Phoenician from Carthage Had European Ancestry

May 25, 2016 — A research team has sequenced the first complete mitochondrial genome of a 2,500-year-old Phoenician dubbed the 'Young Man of Byrsa' or 'Ariche.' This is the first ancient DNA to ... read more

Rare Evolutionary Event Detected

May 23, 2016 — Researchers witnessed a rare event and perhaps solved an evolutionary puzzle about how introns, non-coding sequences of DNA located within genes, multiply in a genome. The results address fundamental ... read more

A Fiery World Aids the Peopling of America

May 23, 2016 — North America experienced regular fires for thousands of years before the arrival of humans in North America according to new ... read more

Nature Vs. Nuture? Both Are Important, Anthropologist Argues

May 18, 2016 — Some anthropologists try to understand how societies and histories construct our identities, and others ask about how genes and the environment do the same thing. Which is the better approach? Both ... read more

Climate Change May Have Contributed to Extinction of Neanderthals

May 11, 2016 — Neanderthals in Europe showed signs of nutritional stress during periods of extreme cold, suggesting climate change may have contributed to their demise around 40,000 years ... read more

Archaeologists Uncover 13,000-Year-Old Bones of Ancient, Extinct Species of Bison at Old Vero Man Site

May 11, 2016 — In what is considered one of the oldest and most important archaeological digs in North America, scientists have uncovered what they believe are the bones of a 13,000- to 14,000-year-old ancient, ... read more

Humans Were in Southern Arabia 10,000 Years Earlier Than First Thought

May 11, 2016 — The last Ice Age made much of the globe uninhabitable, but there were oases -- or refugia -- where people 20,000 years ago were able to cluster and survive. Researchers who specialize in the ... read more

Simulation of Prehistoric Population Dynamics Using Current Topographical Satellite Data

May 5, 2016 — An accurate method to simulate prehistoric movements of people based upon current topographical satellite data may prove useful in determining early human population dynamics even when no genetic ... read more

Six New Fossil Species Form 'Snapshot' of Primates Stressed by Ancient Climate Change

May 5, 2016 — Researchers have unearthed a "mother lode" of a half-dozen fossil primate species in southern China.These primates eked out an existence just after the Eocene-Oligocene transition, when ... read more

Endangered Venomous Mammal Predates Dinosaurs' Extinction, Study Confirms

May 2, 2016 — Biologists have completely sequenced the mitochondrial genome for the Hispaniolan solenodon, filling in the last major branch of placental mammals on the tree of life. The study confirmed that the ... read more

The Genetic History of Ice Age Europe

May 2, 2016 — Analyses of ancient DNA from prehistoric humans paint a picture of dramatic population change in Europe from 45,000 to 7,000 years ago, according to a new study. The new genetic data reveal two big ... read more

Do Bearded Dragons Dream? Reptiles Share Sleep Patterns With Mammals and Birds

Apr. 28, 2016 — Brain sleep appeared early in vertebrate evolution. Researchers describe the existence of REM and slow-wave sleep in the Australian dragon, with many common features with mammalian sleep: a phase ... read more

Study Identifies a Key to Bone Formation, Vertebrate Evolution

Apr. 28, 2016 — Researchers have identified a key action of a watershed gene critical to bone formation and the evolution of vertebrates. The Sp7 or Osterix gene more than likely emerged from an ancestral gene ... read more

Teeth Vs. Tools: Neandertals and Homo Sapiens Had Different Dietary Strategies

Apr. 27, 2016 — Over hundreds of thousands of years, the Neandertal lineage developed successfully in western Eurasia and survived severe fluctuations between colder and warmer climactic cycles of the Ice Age. The ... read more

Investigating World’s Oldest Human Footprints With Software Designed to Decode Crime Scenes

Apr. 26, 2016 — Software has unearthed new information about Laetoli's lost tracks, revealing hints of a previously undiscovered fourth track-maker at the site. The Laetoli tracks were discovered by Mary Leakey ... read more

Modern DNA Reveals Ancient Male Population Explosions Linked to Migration and Technology

Apr. 25, 2016 — The largest ever study of global genetic variation in the human Y chromosome has uncovered the hidden history of men. Research reveals explosions in male population numbers in five continents, ... read more

Monday, June 6, 2016