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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.

Ancient couple
22 February, 2020 - 14:52 ashley cowie

Super Archaic Humans Mixed with Unknown 'Ghost' Species

Do you remember those school science posters that depicted human evolution with a primate standing up and becoming a modern human? Of course you do, but you may not have noticed that these posters...
Depiction of a volcano erupting to show what the eruption at Budj Bim could have looked like. Source: SiriusRzn / Adobe stock
12 February, 2020 - 22:49 Ed Whelan

Is the Aboriginal Budj Bim Volcano Tale the World’s Oldest Story?

Researchers investigating the date of human settlement in Australia have made an amazing discovery. They analyzed geological data in relation to the oral tradition of local Aboriginal people, and it...
Neanderthal ancestry found in Africans. Source: procy_ab / Adobe Stock
31 January, 2020 - 00:39 ancient-origins

Neanderthal Ancestry Detected in Africans For the First Time

When the first Neanderthal genome was sequenced, using DNA collected from ancient bones, it was accompanied by the discovery that modern humans in Asia, Europe and America inherited approximately 2%...
Original position of the skeletal remains inside submerged cave of Muknal. Source: Jerónimo Avilés /© 2020 Hubbe et al CC BY 4.0
30 January, 2020 - 18:55 ashley cowie

First Americans Were More Diverse Than Thought

Scientists are claiming current theories “over-simplify” how the Americas were populated. Many of us were once taught that the Americas were void of humans until around 13,000 years ago. Authors like...
Devil footprints’ on the Ciampate del Diavolo. Source: Edmondo Gnerre / CC BY 2.0
29 January, 2020 - 21:53 Ed Whelan

Walking Into Danger? Italian Devil’s Footprints Mystery Revealed

An ancient set of footprints commonly known as the ‘ devil footprints ’ on the side of an extinct volcano have long frightened and intrigued people in southern Italy . In reality, it was thought that...
Excavation of archaeological deposits in Chagyrskaya Cave indicate long distance nomadic Neanderthals traveled from Europe.
29 January, 2020 - 16:24 ancient-origins

Stone Tools Reveal Epic Trek of Nomadic Neanderthals

Kseniya Kolobova et al / The Conversation Neanderthal ( Homo neanderthalensis ) fossils were first discovered in western Europe in the mid nineteenth century. That was just the first in a long line...
The Shum Laka rock shelter in Cameroon, home to an ancient population that bears little genetic resemblance to most people who live in the region today. Source: Pierre de Maret
24 January, 2020 - 00:20 ancient-origins

Ancient DNA From West Africa Reveals ‘Ghost’ Lineage

Saint Louis University Africa is the homeland of our species and harbors greater human genetic diversity than any other part of the planet. Studies of ancient DNA from African archaeological sites...
A fossil of Parioscorpio venator, a 437-million-year-old scorpion that resembles modern species. Source: Wendruff et al., Scientific Reports, 2020
17 January, 2020 - 01:57 ashley cowie

This Scorpion Was Among the First Lifeforms to Walk on Earth

Almost half a billion years ago Earth was largely inhabited by armored arthropods with segmented bodies and jointed limbs, shelled mollusks, and wobbly unrecognizable fishlike organisms darting about...
Neanderthal tools included shell scrapers. Source: procy_ab & Comugnero Silvana / Adobe Stock
16 January, 2020 - 14:44 ancient-origins

Coastal Neanderthals Went Diving For Tools

Neanderthals are known to have used tools, but the extent to which they were able to exploit coastal resources has been questioned. New research shows they collected clam shells and volcanic rock...
Colorful Indian Kangayam Holy Cow ready for pongal festival. Source: pradeep/ Adobe stock
15 January, 2020 - 19:03 Ed Whelan

Happy Pongal! The Ancient Indian Festival That Honors Nature

Many societies celebrate the changing of the seasons and harvest time. One of the most elaborate festivals in India is the Lohri, better known as the Pongal. This is a four-day Hindu festival that...
A capuchin monkey in Brazil hoists a stone tool to crack open nuts. Source: Luca Antonio Marino / CC BY-ND 4.0
14 January, 2020 - 01:57 ancient-origins

Monkeys Smashing Nuts Hint at How Human Toolmaking Evolved

Kristen S. Morrow / The Conversation Human beings used to be defined as “the tool-maker” species. But the uniqueness of this description was challenged in the 1960s when Dr. Jane Goodall discovered...
Deceased mammoth
11 January, 2020 - 13:55 ancient-origins

Did Ice Age Extinctions Force Us to Invent Civilization?

Nick Longrich / The Conversation Why did we take so long to invent civilization? Modern Homo sapiens first evolved roughly 250,000 to 350,000 years ago. But initial steps towards civilization –...
Sunrise over plantation, representation of lost crop field. Source: somkak / Adobe stock
7 January, 2020 - 12:31 ashley cowie

The Revival of Ancient Lost Crops Reveals Surprising Results

The scientific cultivation of lost ancient seed crops has yielded much higher than expected growth rates, challenging assumptions about maize (corn) growth in prehistoric North America . According to...
Southwest Africa, one of the places of human origins. Source: mezzotint_fotolia / Adobe Stock.
6 January, 2020 - 18:46 Ed Whelan

New Findings Change the Theories of Human Origins

The evolution and spread of Homo sapiens is perhaps one of the greatest mysteries in all of science. Until recently, it was believed that the origins of the species and the ancestors of every person...
Keto Queen Makes Millions with Ancient Indian Ghee
5 January, 2020 - 14:03 ashley cowie

Keto Queen Makes Millions with Ancient Indian Ghee

Ancient Indian ghee butter has been turned into gold by a Brazilian entrepreneur. Raquel Tavares, who lives in Los Angeles, California , founded the company Fourth & Heart with her life savings...
Border Cave Excavation site, Lebombo Mountains, South Africa. Source: Credit Dr Lucinda Backwell/ Wits University
3 January, 2020 - 14:02 ashley cowie

170,000-Year-Old Human Diet Contained Roast Vegetables

New research focused on the roasted remnants of rootstalks found in a Lebombo Mountain cave in South Africa suggests early humans brought the plants to the cave to feed to their young and old. A new...
Artistic reconstruction of ‘Lola, based on the information from the DNA found in the birch tar. Source: Tom Björklund / Nature
17 December, 2019 - 18:53 ancient-origins

Chewing Gum Reveals Look of Neolithic Scandinavian

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have succeeded in extracting a complete human genome from a thousands-of-years old “chewing gum”. According to the researchers, it is a new untapped...
Depiction of an ancient human smile
8 December, 2019 - 22:35 ashley cowie

Ancient Human Smile Used as an Effective ‘Get-Sex’ Tool

A study on the history of facial expressions has discovered humans developed friendly facial expressions to attract less-aggressive, selected breeding partners, as a result of ‘self-domestication’...
Illustration of Neanderthal Man Holding Neanderthal's Skull Source: Roni / Adobe Stock
2 December, 2019 - 01:43 Ed Whelan

Neanderthals Died Out due to Inbreeding and Bad Luck

Researchers now believe that they may have established why the Neanderthals became extinct. Expert analysts using population models believe that inbreeding and the internal dynamics of their small...
Study shows human migration could have followed monsoons to the Levant. Source: mdesigner125 / Adobe Stock
27 November, 2019 - 18:14 ancient-origins

Human Migration Route Out of Africa Tracked Monsoons

By Kelly April Tyrrell /University of Wisconsin-Madison Last year, scientists announced that a human jawbone and prehistoric tools found in 2002 in Misliya Cave, on the western edge of Israel, were...
Great Ape
14 November, 2019 - 17:33 Ed Whelan

Lucy Wasn’t As Smart As Today’s Great Apes

Researchers have found that early humans such as the famous ‘Lucy’ were not as smart as the great apes. Using new methods, they have been able to determine that early humans did not have the same...
Bones from the hand of a male human ancestor Danuvius guggenmosi. Source: Christoph Jäckle / Nature
7 November, 2019 - 13:57 ashley cowie

Evidence Suggests Human Ancestor Walked Upright In Trees

Scientists have described an 11.62 million-year-old ape that moved like no other creature on Earth using its human legs and orangutan arms. A team of scientists from Eberhard Karls University of...
An Aurignacian tooth found in the Manot Cave, Israel. (Tel Aviv University) Cro-Magnon artists painting in Font-de-Gaume by Charles Robert Knight. (Public Domain)
7 November, 2019 - 01:54 ancient-origins

Aurignacian Secrets Revealed in Cutting-Edge Dental Research

Who exactly were the Aurignacians who lived in the Levant 40,000 years ago? They first appeared in Europe some 43,000 years ago, bringing a cultural golden period of the Paleolithic with them. Their...
Does the unique nature of our evolution mean we are alone in the universe? Source: CC0
26 October, 2019 - 01:24 ancient-origins

Evolution Tells Us We Might Be the Only Intelligent Life in the Universe

Nick Longrich / The Conversation Are we alone in the universe? It comes down to whether intelligence is a probable outcome of natural selection, or an improbable fluke. By definition, probable events...

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