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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.

Representative image of a Neanderthal man. Source: sam / Adobe Stock

Do Morning People Have Neanderthals to Thank for Being Early Risers?

Are you a morning person? You might have Neanderthals to thank for that! In a revelatory study, scientists have unearthed a fascinating genetic link between modern humans and our Neanderthal...
Woman measuring her height.	Source: kei907/Adobe Stock

Cultural Practices Helped Make Women Shorter than Men in Neolithic Times

There is an assumption even today that height is determined almost exclusively by genetics. But this is based on a type of genetic determinism that underestimates the role of culture and environment...
Three-quarter and frontal views of Homo neledi skull from Lesedi Chamber, South Africa. Source: Hawks, J et al/Elife Sciences

Controversial Claims About Homo Naledi Are Stirring Up Evolution Research

Mike W. Morley et al. / The Conversation In June, researchers led by paleoanthropologist Lee Berger published sensational claims about an extinct human species called Homo naledi online and in the...
Artist's reconstruction of a group of Neanderthals butchering a straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus). (It is unknown whether Neanderthals wore any type of clothing, so the depiction reflects artistic license). Source: Alex Boersma/PNAS

Neanderthals Hunted Elephants Twice the Weight of Modern Ones

Evidence has emerged from Germany dated to 125,000 years ago showing Neanderthals hunted elephants twice the size of contemporaneous ones. Building on that information, which provides new insight...
Map by the study authors depicting the location of the Buran Kaya III (1), Zlatý Kůň (2), Fournol (3), Serinyà (4), Krems-Wachtberg (5) and Věstonice (6) archeological sites, whose remains were were analyzed in the study. Also shown are one of the analyzed skull fragments and pierced beads discovered with the bone fragments from the Buran Kaya III site, as well as the Venus statuettes from Věstonice, Willendorf and the Dame de Brassempouy (from right to left).  Source: E-M. Geigl, provided by the author/The

Skulls in Ukraine Reveal Early Modern Humans Came From the East

By Eva-Maria Geigl & Thierry Grange/The Conversation How did our species, Homo sapiens , arrive in Western Europe? Published in Nature Ecology & Evolution , our new study analyses two skull...
A chimpanzee in contemplation.  Source: keks20034 / Adobe Stock.

Age of the Wise Men: What Distinguishes Homo Sapiens from Apes?

Homo sapiens represents the last of a long line of hominins that once consisted of five different species spanning four continents. Today, we are the last humans, that is, the last of the genus Homo...
Study reveals Denisovan genetic make-up may be responsible for modern day depression. Source: Bartek/Adobe Stock, Woraphon/Adobe Stock

Denisovan Genes Responsible for Modern Depression, Says New Study

Ancient humans inter-breeding with extinct Denisovans have created a genetic make-up and subsequent adaptations that have left many of us predisposed to certain mental health issues like depression,...
Representational image of Neanderthals by a fire. Source: Jeff Whyte / Adobe Stock

Reevaluating Neanderthals: Are They Actually the Same Species as Us?

Neanderthals have been recognized as a species distinct from modern humans for quite some time. But if a trio of researchers from universities in Portugal, Italy and Spain get their way, this...
Scientists may have discovered why there is a discrepancy between the Neanderthal DNA present in modern-day Asian and European Homo sapiens. Source: Winters860 / Adobe Stock

Study Tracks Neanderthal DNA, and It’s A Cross-Continental Odyssey!

While Neanderthals went extinct approximately 40,000 years ago, they left a legacy hidden inside the genetic codes of humans, in the form of traces of their Neanderthal DNA. Even though Neanderthals...

Neanderthal Hunters Were Stalking Cave Lions 48,000 Years Ago

A international team of paleoanthropologists has just published research supposedly proving that Neanderthals were hunting and eating cave lions nearly 50,000 years ago in Europe. Until now experts...
Diorama of Homo erectus using tools at Parc de Préhistoire de Bretagne.       Source: Bas Kers (NL)/CC BY NC-SA 2.0 DEED

Homo Erectus Mastered Oldowan and Acheulean Tools 2 Million Years Ago

While they first appeared on the lowland savannas of East Africa around two million years ago, the human ancestor Homo erectus soon expanded their range into the Ethiopian highlands. According to a...
Artists impression of the scene at White Sands National Park 23,000 years ago when teenagers left their prints in the mud. Source: © Davide Bonadonna and Bournemouth University

Humans Got To America 7,000 Years Earlier Than Thought, New Research Confirms

Matthew Robert Bennett & Sally Christine Reynolds /The Conversation When and how humans first settled in the Americas is a subject of considerable controversy. In the 20th century, archaeologists...
Main; Wadi Gharandal riverine wetland along the Jordan Rift Valley. Inset of flaked stone handtool, found in the Jordan Valley. Source: Main; Mahmoud Abbas, Inset; University of Southampton

Humans Used Alternate Migration Route Out of Africa 80,000 Years Ago

By no means is climate change a new phenomenon – in fact, throughout its 4.6-billion-year long history, the Earth has undergone innumerable climatic patterns over thousands of years. A new study...
Weapons and defensive objects are evidence that show that hunter-gatherer communities in the Atacama Desert resorted to violence for conflict-solving. Source:  Standen et al., 2023, PLOS ONE/CC-BY 4.0

Hunter-Gatherers in the Atacama Desert Resorted to Brutal Violence

A couple of years ago, a study alluded to Neolithic farmers in Chile’s Atacama Desert engaging in violent battles over resources. Turn back the clock further, and a newer study points to ancient...
Possible hominin tracks with footwear in the Garden Route National Park, South Africa. Source: Charles Helm/The Conversation

Tracks on a South African Beach Offer Oldest Evidence Yet of Human Footwear

Charles Helm /The Conversation When and where did our ancestors first fashion footwear? We cannot look to physical evidence of shoes for the answer, as the perishable materials from which they were...
Dartmouth researchers report that apes and early humans evolved more flexible shoulders and elbows than monkeys, shown here, to safely get out of trees. Source: Luke Fannin, Dartmouth College/ Royal Society Open Science

"Downclimbing" is the Overlooked Key to Human Evolution, Says Study

One of the watershed moments in the evolution of ‘human’ or ‘ Homo ’ history is when the first hominids descended from the trees to achieve bipedal locomotion ( Homo erectus ), causing a separation...
Archaeologists in Turkey, have unearthed a partial cranium of a female, challenging the story of the origins of our human ancestors. Source: Sevim-Erol, A., Begun, D.R., Sözer, Ç.S. et al/CC BY 4.0)

Oldest Human Ancestors May Have Evolved Nine Million Years Ago in Turkey

Modern humans first left Africa and migrated to Eurasia between 60,000 and 100,000 years ago . But a fossilized skeleton with surprisingly human-like characteristics found in central Turkey suggests...
Human ancestors overlooking a bleak, ice-covered landscape. Source: Dr_Microbe / Adobe Stock

Near-Extinction of Our Human Ancestors Revealed by Genetic Research

Approximately one million years ago, the Earth was populated by a few hundred thousand or so ancient human ancestors. But about 900,000 years ago there was a sudden and dramatic crash in this...
Flores hobbits may have arrived on leaf baskets.  Here they interact with stegodons and Komodo dragon. Source: Peter Schouten

Flores Hobbits May Have Floated to the Island on Leaf Nests

While Frodo in Tolkien’s Middle Earth ventured very far to destroy a magic ring and Gollum was a good swimmer, real-life ‘hobbit’ ancestors may have also traversed far to get to their island! After...
Early Homin migration caused by climate change could have been the driving force between interbreeding between Denisovans and Neanderthals. Source: Gorodenkoff / Adobe Stock

Climate Change Played Cupid Between Neanderthals and Denisovans

It has been 5 years since the unearthing of Denny , a 90,000-year-old fossil specimen that had a Denisovan father and a Neanderthal mother. This find served as proof that interbreeding was quite...
A frigid apocalypse 1.1 million years ago led to an archaic human extinction in Europe. Source: Lazy_Bear / Adobe Stock.

Massive Climate Catastrophe Froze Europe’s Earliest Humans to Death

An interdisciplinary team of archaeologists, anthropologists and earth scientists have found evidence that a severe cooling event in the North Atlantic region approximately 1.1 million years ago...
The majority of the prehistoric world remains uncharted, as shown by the blank areas of this map. This visualization is based on a Kernel Density Estimate of assemblages in ROAD. Sites with higher densities of assemblages appear more intense in color. Source: Christian Sommer (ROCEEH); made with Natural Earth/Public domain)

Huge New Prehistoric Sites Database Transforms Understanding of Human History

In another step towards unraveling the intricate tapestry of human history, a huge database of prehistoric sites spanning a history from 3 million to 20,000 years ago has been unveiled. This...
Skull from specimen HLD 6 at Hualongdong, now identified as a new archaic human species. Source: Wu et al./Journal of Human Evolution

Discovery of New Archaic Human Species Announced by Chinese Scientists

A team of evolutionary scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, several Chinese universities and the National Research Center on Human Evolution in Spain has shocked the scientific world by...
The 3D Digital Facial Zoom of Zlatý kůň, the oldest remains to have been genomically sequenced. Source: Cícero Moraes/CC  BY 4.0

World’s Earliest Known Woman ‘Zlatý Kůň’ Has Her Face Reconstructed!

Over 70 years after her severed skull was first discovered buried deep within a cave in the Czech Republic in two different halves, scientists conducted genome sequencing to determine that it was the...

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