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Evolution & Human Origins

We bring you all the latest news and discoveries relating to human origins and evolution. The more fossils that are unearthed, the more researchers admit that there is much that is still unknown about the evolution of humans.

Early humans took detours to pleasant environments on their prehistoric route to Europe. Source: Kovalenko I / Adobe Stock

Humans Took Pleasant Detours on the Prehistoric Route to Europe

New research shows that the environment is a key factor in mapping the prehistoric routes that humans took when they headed out of Africa towards Europe. More favorable climates enticed Homo sapiens...
Bronze Age skull in situ in the Tollense valley Source: ©: Stefan Sauer / Tollense Valley Project

Ancient Warriors Show Europeans Were Late Adopters of Dairy Produce

Research undertaken on Bronze Age warriors who died in a battle in Germany has revealed something remarkable about the evolution of human digestion. It established that it is only in the past few...
The question of when humans discovered how to make fire is an issue of hot debate in archaeology. The most recent answer may have been found at Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa. Source: Gorodenkoff / Adobe Stock

First Human Fire Starter Was 1.6 Million Years Ago, Scientist Says

Fire, and learning how to control it, greatly altered the course of human evolution allowing our ancestors to cook food, fight off predators and explore colder climates. Defining when humans first...
Male and female Neanderthals were one of our ancestors, but recent DNA research suggests we also have a mysterious archaic human ancestor.  Credit: Gorodenkoff / Adobe Stock

DNA Study Reveals We Have a Mystery Human Ancestor

A new method for analyzing modern and archaic human DNA has thrown up some fascinating results. It appears that modern humans ( Homo Sapiens ) mated earlier and more frequently with an archaic human...
A man stands in what appears to be a giant footprint in bedrock in Pingyin China

The Giant Footprint of Pingyan: Giant Made or Man Made?

Stories and tales about gigantic beings inhabiting the Earth occur in almost all ancient cultures and civilizations. From the Indo-Europeans, to the Greeks, to the Christian Bible, tales of giants...
The first waves of Caribbean inhabitants were diverse. Source: pxfuel / Public Domain.

DNA Studies Reveals True Origins of First Inhabitants of the Caribbean

Archaeologists and anthropologists know that the Caribbean was one of the last parts of the Americas settled by humans, but a new study of DNA has revealed when, how, and where the original Caribbean...
Humans and Neanderthals Have More in Common than Polar and Brown Bears

Humans and Neanderthals Have More in Common than Polar and Brown Bears

Ancient humans and Neanderthals, and Denisovans, were genetically closer than polar bears and brown bears, and so, like the bears, were able to easily produce healthy, fertile hybrids according to a...
Human-Neanderthal fertility gene discovered in recent study. Source: Dimid / Adobe Stock.

Neanderthal Gene Makes Women More Fertile

Are you in the “one in three” group of European women with the special Neanderthal gene required for fewer pregnancy issues? The revelatory new DNA study by researchers at the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft...
Scientists have found the evolutionary reason for beards. Source: be free / Adobe Stock

The Evolutionary Reason for Beards – a Hairy Shock Absorber

A new study has provided an evolutionary reason for beards - to reduce the impact of punches. This explains why men grow facial hair while most women do not. But before we begin, if the findings of...
A. Sebida hand bones show this human ancestor’s grip was similar to a modern human’s.       Source: Peter Schmid, courtesy of Tracy Kivell/University of Kent

2 Million-Year-Old Human Ancestor Had A Grip Just Like Us

Inhabiting what is now modern-day South Africa, an ancient human ancestor, Australopithecus sediba, that lived two million years ago had hands that might have enabled it to carry out some movements...
Landscape at the Baikal lake in Siberia, origins of the first Americans? Source: serge-b / Adobe Stock

Found! The Deepest Link Between Siberians and the First Americans

Using human population genetics, ancient pathogen genomics, and isotope analysis, a team of researchers assessed the population history of the Lake Baikal region, finding the deepest connection to...
Beautiful panorama with a rainbow over the sea and the coast. The amazing nature of the Arctic. Picturesque northern landscape. Providence Bay, Bering Sea, Pacific Ocean. Chukotka, Far East of Russia   Source: Andrei Stepanov / Adobe Stock

Study Points at Hidden Human History Submerged On ‘Aquaterra’

Today, sea-level rise is a great concern of humanity as climate change warms the planet and melts ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica . Indeed, great coastal cities around the world like Miami and...
Scientists studying 55-million-year-old fossils using groundbreaking tech have revealed that after the extinction of dinosaurs, giant anchovies roamed the sea. Pictured: Artist’s impression of saber-toothed anchovy being caught by an early whale.   Source: © Joschua Knüppe

55-Million-Year-Old Fossils Reveal Giant Anchovies With Monstrous Fangs

Scientists have made an amazing discovery about the humble anchovy. These small fish are usually found as a topping on a pizza. However, millions of years ago, they were saber-toothed predators who...
The researchers found surprising examples of genetic continuity of ancient Andean genes to some modern groups. Source: SL-Photography /Adobe Stock

Ancient Andean Genes Reveal DNA Continuity Amid Cultural Clashes

An international research team has conducted the first in-depth, wide-scale study of ancient Andean genes before European contact. The findings, published online May 7 in Cell , reveal early genetic...
This illustration depicts NASA's Perseverance rover operating on the surface of Mars. Source: NASA / JPL-Caltech

Promising Signs For Perseverance Rover’s Quest for Martian Life

New research indicates river delta deposits within Mars' Jezero crater - the destination of NASA's Perseverance rover on the Red Planet - formed over time scales that promoted habitability and...
Fossil skeletal remains of the Adalatherium hui or the ‘crazy beast’, which was unearthed in Madagascar.       Source: (Marylou Stewart / Nature)

66-Million-Year-Old ‘Crazy Beast’ Fossil Discovered on Madagascar

In evolutionary terms, islands are the stuff of weirdness. It is on islands where animals evolve in isolation, often for millions of years, with different food sources, competitors, predators, and...
Did Denisovan ancestry reach European megalith builders? Source: adrenalinapura / Adobe Stock

The Far-Reaching Realms of Denisovan Ancestry Stretch to Iceland

This week it was announced that a new genetic study published in the journal Nature shows that the genomes of over 27,000 Icelanders display an admixture of modern human and Neanderthal DNA, along...
34 million-year-old monkey teeth found in Peru indicate they crossed the Atlantic from Africa.            Source: edojob / Adobe Stock

Teeth Indicate Monkeys Sailed Across the Atlantic from Africa

Keck School of Medicine of USC Four fossilized monkey teeth discovered deep in the Peruvian Amazon provide new evidence that more than one group of ancient primates journeyed across the Atlantic...
A new study finds that three different human species lived alongside each other. Source: pict rider / Adobe Stock.

Three Different Human-like Species Lived Concurrently in Ancient Africa

The oldest known Homo erectus and Paranthropus robustus fossils have been found in a hilltop cave and a new study details a critical period of hominin evolution showing that two million years ago “...
Homo naledi juvenile skeleton (Bolter et al. 2020) and reconstruction of a Homo naledi adult. (Cicero Moraes (Arc-Team) et al/CC BY 4.0)

Ancient Hominin Skeleton Holds Clues To How Our Ancestors Grew Up

There are various ways researchers can explore the evolution of ancient humans and our relatives. Mapping their movements through genetic migrations , discovering more about what they ate and their...
Once the Calusa captured fished, they were likely harvested with seine or dip nets or speared, said archaeologist William Marquardt. Source: Florida Museum / Merald Clark

Ingeniously Engineered ‘Watercourts’ Fueled Florida’s Calusa Kingdom

A research project has finally solved an archaeological mystery in America . Experts believe that they now know how a Native American people, the Calusa who lived in Florida, were able to develop and...
Homo antecessor shared many facial features with modern humans. Source: Terrae Antiqvae

‘Distinct’ Facial Features Have Been Around For A Very Long Time

A new study suggests that human facial features are found deep within our ancestry. Some say that the similarities between the facial features of modern humans and the controversial Early Pleistocene...
An artist's rendering of the ancient wormlike creature called Ikaria wariootia. Source: Sohail Wasif/UCR

Rice-Sized Ancient Worms are the Ancestors of All Animals

Geologists have discovered the first ancestor on the family tree that contains most animals today, including humans. The ancient worm-like creature , Ikaria wariootia , is the earliest bilaterian, or...
Study from international team of researchers shows introduced hippos in Colombia can restore a lost world. Left: Mugshot of Pablo Escobar. Right: A representation of hippo in a river.       Source: Left; Colombian National Police / Public domain, Right; Carl / Adobe stock

Could Pablo Escobar’s Hippos in Colombia Restore a Lost World?

University of Massachusetts A study from an international team of researchers including UMass Amherst biologist John Rowan shows introduced species (e.g. hippos in Colombia) can restore a lost world...

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