Human Evolution News

September 23, 2016

Body Ornaments of the Neanderthals

Smarter Brains Are Blood-Thirsty Brains

Neanderthals Didn't Get Schizophrenia: Study

Checking out Competition Enlarged Our Brain

Latest Headlines

updated 1:02am EDT

New Piltdown Hoax Analysis Points to Work of 'Lone Forger'

Aug. 10, 2016 — Latest analysis of the famous Piltdown Man forgeries points the finger of suspicion even more firmly at their discoverer, Charles ... read more

Archaeology Team Makes World-First Tool Discovery

Aug. 8, 2016 — How smart were human-like species of the Stone Age? New research reveals surprisingly sophisticated adaptations by early humans living 250,000 years ago in a former oasis ... read more

Cancer on a Paleo-Diet? Ask Someone Who Lived 1.7 Million Years Ago

July 28, 2016 — The most ancient evidence for cancer and bony tumors yet described in the human fossil record has been published ... read more

DNA Analyses Reveal Genetic Identities of World's First Farmers

July 25, 2016 — Conducting the first large-scale, genome-wide analyses of ancient human remains from the Near East, an international team of scientists has illuminated the genetic identities ... read more

Biologists Home in on Paleo Gut for Clues to Our Evolutionary History

July 21, 2016 — A new study of the gut microbiomes of humans, chimps, bonobos and gorillas shows that at least two major groups of bacteria have cospeciated with these hosts, with a lineage ... read more

Neanderthals in Germany: First Population Peak, Then Sudden Extinction

July 21, 2016 — Neanderthals once populated the entire European continent. Around 45,000 years ago, Homo neanderthalensis was the predominant human species in Europe. Archaeological findings ... read more

Technological and Cultural Innovations Amongst Early Humans Not Sparked by Climate Change

July 13, 2016 — Environmental records obtained from archaeological sites in South Africa's southern Cape suggest climate may not have been ... read more

Homo Erectus Walked as We Do

July 12, 2016 — Researchers have recently discovered multiple assemblages of Homo erectus footprints in northern Kenya that provide unique opportunities to understand locomotor patterns and ... read more

Cannibalism Among Late Neanderthals in Northern Europe

July 6, 2016 — Grisly evidence has been uncovered by researchers that Neanderthals butchered their own kind some 40,000 years ago, opening up many possibilities regarding the way late ... read more

Fire Discovery Sheds New Light on 'Hobbit' Demise

June 29, 2016 — Crucial new evidence has revealed modern humans (Homo sapiens) were likely using fire at Liang Bua 41,000 years ago, narrowing the time gap between the last hobbits (Homo ... read more

Humanity's Hobbit-Like Ancestor Is Way Older Than We Thought

DNA Data Storage Could Last Thousands of Years

Scientists Dicover Small T. Rex Ancestor

New Dinosaur Species Offers Evolutionary Clues

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 further confirms its status as ... 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 at the ... 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 sequences from the ... 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 the record lends weight to ... 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 several thousand years. An exhaustive review of archaeological data ... read more

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

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

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

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

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

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

Novel Collagen Fingerprinting Identifies a Neanderthal Bone Among 2,000 Fragments

Apr. 22, 2016 — Scientists have used a new molecular fingerprinting technique to identify one Neanderthal bone from around 2,000 bone fragments. All the tiny pieces of bone were recovered from a key archaeological ... read more

Bigger Brains Led to Bigger Bodies in Our Ancestors

Apr. 18, 2016 — New research suggests that humans became the large-brained, large-bodied animals we are today because of natural selection to increase brain size. The work contradicts previous models that treat ... read more

The Pyrophilic Primate

Apr. 12, 2016 — Fire, a tool broadly used for cooking, constructing, hunting and even communicating, was arguably one of the earliest discoveries in human history. But when, how and why it came to be used is hotly ... read more

Neanderthals May Have Been Infected by Diseases Carried out of Africa by Humans

Apr. 11, 2016 — A review of latest genetic evidence suggests infectious diseases are tens of thousands of years older than previously thought, and that they could jump between species of 'hominin.' ... read more

Modern Men Lack Y Chromosome Genes from Neanderthals

Apr. 7, 2016 — The Neanderthal counterpart of the human Y chromosome, or male sex chromosome, appears to have died out. Why this happened is up for ... read more

Ancient DNA Shows European Wipe-out of Early Americans

Apr. 1, 2016 — The first large-scale study of ancient DNA from early American people has confirmed the devastating impact of European colonization on the Indigenous American populations of the ... read more

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

New research counters claim that the 'Hobbit' had Down syndrome

Monday, June 6, 2016

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Neanderthals used fire in caves: French cave sheds new light on the Neanderthals

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Migration back to Africa took place during the Palaeolithic

Monday, May 23, 2016

Rare evolutionary event detected

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Nature vs. Nuture? Both are important, anthropologist argues

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Climate change may have contributed to extinction of Neanderthals

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Monday, May 2, 2016

The genetic history of Ice Age Europe

Friday, April 22, 2016

Novel collagen fingerprinting identifies a Neanderthal bone among 2,000 fragments

Monday, April 18, 2016

Bigger brains led to bigger bodies in our ancestors

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

The pyrophilic primate

Monday, April 11, 2016

Neanderthals may have been infected by diseases carried out of Africa by humans

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Modern men lack Y chromosome genes from Neanderthals

Friday, April 1, 2016

Ancient DNA shows European wipe-out of early Americans

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Indonesian 'Hobbits' may have died out sooner than thought

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Monday, March 28, 2016

A world map of Neanderthal and Denisovan ancestry in modern humans

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Human ancestors explored 'out of Africa' despite impaired nasal faculties

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

More ancient viruses lurk in our DNA than we thought

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Ancient Denisovan DNA excavated in modern Pacific Islanders

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

How people prepared food in prehistoric times

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

400,000-year-old fossils from Spain provide earliest genetic evidence of Neanderthals

Monday, March 14, 2016

Neanderthals diet: 80% meat, 20% vegetables

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Early human habitat, recreated for first time, shows life was no picnic

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

The benefits of food processing: Processing food before eating likely played key role in human evolution

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Scientists uncover history of ancient viruses as far back as 30 million years ago

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Without ancestral gene life on Earth might not have evolved beyond slime

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Ancient chimpanzee ‘Adam’ lived over one million years ago, research reveals

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Predicting human evolution: Teeth tell the story

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Neanderthals mated with modern humans much earlier than previously thought, study finds

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Fossil analysis pushes back human split from other primates by two million years

Sunday, February 14, 2016

New appreciation for human microbiome leads to greater understanding of human health

Thursday, February 11, 2016

South Africa's Sterkfontein Caves produce two new hominin fossils

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Clues about human migration to Imperial Rome uncovered in 2,000-year-old cemetery

Monday, February 8, 2016

Early human ancestor didn't have the jaws of a nutcracker

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Humans evolved by sharing technology and culture

Monday, February 1, 2016

Turtle soup, perchance? Prehistoric humans had a penchant for tortoises

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Life history effects on the molecular clock of autosomes, sex chromosomes

Monday, January 18, 2016

Harmful mutations have accumulated during early human migrations out of Africa

Thursday, January 14, 2016

New discoveries concerning Ötzi's genetic history

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Monday, January 4, 2016

King Kong was inflexible: The giant ape went extinct 100,000 years ago, due to its inability to adapt

Friday, December 18, 2015

‘Virtual fossil’ reveals last common ancestor of humans and Neanderthals

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Monday, December 14, 2015

Scientists say face mites evolved alongside humans since the dawn of human origins

Monday, December 7, 2015

Difference between facial growth of Neanderthals and modern humans

Monday, November 30, 2015

Bonobos documented for first time using ancient pre-agricultural tools, breaking bones, and using spears as attack weapons

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Paleolithic elephant butchering site found in Greece

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Betrayals of trust: Human nature's dark side may have helped us spread across the world

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Predicting the human genome using evolution

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Chicken study reveals evolution can happen much faster than thought

Monday, October 26, 2015

Ancient babies boost Bering land bridge layover

Thursday, October 15, 2015

'Paleo' sleep? Sorry, pre-modern people don't get more Zzzzs than we do

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Ancient genome from Africa sequenced for the first time

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Foot fossils of human relative illustrate evolutionary 'messiness' of bipedal walking

Friday, September 25, 2015

2-million-year-old fossils reveal hearing abilities of early humans

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Stem cell research hints at evolution of human brain

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Shift in human ancestors' diet earlier than previously thought

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Ancient ancestor of humans with tiny brain discovered

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Shouldering the burden of evolution

Monday, September 7, 2015

Did grandmas make people pair up?

Monday, August 31, 2015

Human body has gone through four stages of evolution

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Without humans, the whole world could look like Serengeti

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Marks on 3.4-million-year-old bones not due to trampling, analysis confirms

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Paleo diet: Big brains needed carbs

Monday, August 3, 2015

Body size increase did not play a role in the origins of homo genus, new analysis suggests

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Pygmies show growth plasticity is key to human evolution

Friday, July 3, 2015

Old World monkey had tiny, complex brain

Thursday, July 2, 2015

How our sense of smell evolved, including in early humans

Monday, June 22, 2015

Early modern humans interbred with Neanderthals

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Data bank launched for global access to ancient DNA

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Ethiopian and Egyptian genomes help map early humans' route out of Africa

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Partly human yeast show a common ancestor's lasting legacy

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

World's oldest stone tools challenge ideas about first toolmakers

Monday, May 11, 2015

Tortoise approach works best, even for evolution

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Human hunting weapons may not have caused the demise of the Neanderthals

Monday, April 27, 2015

Common back problems may be caused by evolution of human locomotion

Monday, April 20, 2015

Getting a better grasp of primate grip

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Palaeolithic remains show cannibalistic habits of human ancestors

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Strange rituals or cannibalism? Neanderthals manipulated bodies of adults and children shortly after death

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Two ancient human fossils from Laos reveal early human diversity

Friday, March 27, 2015

The stapes in the middle ear of a Neanderthal child shows anatomical differences from humans

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Earliest humans had diverse range of body types, just as we do today

Monday, March 9, 2015

Ancient fossils reveal diversity in the body structure of human ancestors

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Discovery of 2.8-million-year-old jaw sheds light on early humans

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

When age matters: precise dating of ancient charcoal found near skull is helping reveal unique period in prehistory

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Drilling ancient African lakes sheds light on human evolution

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Neanderthal groups based part of their lifestyle on sexual division of labor

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Neanderthals disappeared from the Iberian Peninsula before than from the rest of Europe

Thursday, January 29, 2015