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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.

Fossil skeletal remains of the Adalatherium hui or the ‘crazy beast’, which was unearthed in Madagascar. Source: (Marylou Stewart / Nature)
2 May, 2020 - 02:01 ancient-origins

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
25 April, 2020 - 13:59 Andrew Collins

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
10 April, 2020 - 22:57 ancient-origins

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.
3 April, 2020 - 18:52 ashley cowie

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)
3 April, 2020 - 14:04 Alicia McDermott

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
1 April, 2020 - 22:56 Ed Whelan

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
1 April, 2020 - 16:00 Alicia McDermott

‘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
24 March, 2020 - 23:34 ancient-origins

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
24 March, 2020 - 22:03 ancient-origins

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...
The fins of this fish played a role in the origins of the human hand. Source: Katrina Kenny, Author provided
19 March, 2020 - 13:05 ancient-origins

This Ancient Four-Limbed Fish Reveals the Origins of the Human Hand

By John Long & Richard Cloutier / The Conversation One of the most significant events in the history of life was when fish evolved into tetrapods , crawling out of the water and eventually...
Little Foot’s skull, with the arrow on the right-hand image indicating the specimen’s atlas. Source: R.J. Clarke/Author supplied
19 March, 2020 - 00:53 ancient-origins

Little Foot’s Skeleton Adds To Human Evolution Story

Amélie Beaudet / The Conversation In his book Wonderful Life , Professor Stephen Jay Gould – an evolutionary biologist, paleontologist and widely-read popular science author – described the evolution...
Individual XVIII teeth from la Sima de los Huesos, Atapuerca. Source: M. Modesto-Mata / CENIEH
18 March, 2020 - 22:03 ashley cowie

Atapuerca Hominids Grew Much Quicker Than Modern Humans

Scientists have proven that tooth enamel developed much quicker in ‘other’ hominids groups. Fossilized bones and teeth tell scientists when organisms lived, and morphological differences provide...
Amber holds the secret to the tiny world of the age of dinosaurs. Source: Xing Lida, CC BY-ND / The Conversation
11 March, 2020 - 22:11 ancient-origins

This Tiny Predator Existed Alongside the Giant Dinosaurs

By Lars Schmitz & Jingmai Kathleen O'Connor / The Conversation In 2016, our colleague Xing Lida held up a small piece of polished, deeply yellow amber. As sunlight shone through the ancient resin...
This small, gracile, almost complete cranium was found near Homo erectus tools in Ethiopia. Source: Dr. Michael J. Rogers, Southern Connecticut State University
5 March, 2020 - 23:04 Alicia McDermott

Homo Erectus Tools Challenge Single Species-Single Tech Thinking

Even a million and a half years ago, our ancestors understood that sometimes you need a simple hammerstone and other times a finely-made hand axe would better suit the task in front of you. New...
Human interaction accelerates innovation. Source: (Image: beamue/ UZH)
29 February, 2020 - 18:57 ancient-origins

Cooperation Between Hunter-gatherers Accelerated Human Evolution

Humans began developing a complex culture as early as the Stone Age . This development was brought about by social interactions between various groups of hunters and gatherers, a UZH study has now...
Image of human foot demonstrating the arch. Source: Alessandro Grandini
27 February, 2020 - 18:29 ashley cowie

Scientists Study 3.5-Million-Year-Old Origins of Unique Human Spring

Scientists have proven the arch running across the top of the human foot evolved in a 3.5-million-year old human ancestor, enabling us to walk and run upright unlike all other primates. Sports...
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...

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