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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.

Artistic reconstruction of ‘Lola, based on the information from the DNA found in the birch tar. Source: Tom Björklund / Nature

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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...
Possibilities for human origins are being explored with the finds at Qesem cave Israel.            Source: ginettigino / Adobe Stock

New Shocking Clues Into Human Origins From Qesem Cave

Just one week after it was announced that the inhabitants of the Qesem Cave, located 12 kilometers east of Tel Aviv in Israel, perhaps practiced swan shamanism as much as 420,000 years ago, comes...
Ancient ecosystems were very different from those found today. Source: Heinrich Harder (1858-1935) / Public Domain

Early Humans Evolved in Ecosystems Unlike Any Found Today

To understand the environmental pressures that shaped human evolution, scientists must first piece together the details of the ancient plant and animal communities that our fossil ancestors lived in...
Pilbara, Australia where scientists discovered microbial remains in ancient rocks. Source: Terry / Adobe Stock.

Oldest Life On Earth Traced To Land

Scientists have found exceptionally preserved microbial remains in some of Earth's oldest rocks in Western Australia - a major advance in the field, offering clues for how life on Earth originated...
Muscles in the back of a 10 week old human embryo’s hand called dorsometacarpales (the two smallest horizontal muscles highlighted at center) will be lost or fuse with other muscles during development. Source: Diogo, Siomava, Gitton.

Ancient Reptilian Hand Muscles Found in Human Embryos

High resolution 3D microscope images have revealed truths about early human development proving human embryos have more muscles than adults! At seven weeks of gestation a human embryo is the size of...
This illustration shows the structure of the Eustachian Tube in a Neanderthal male and it's similarity to the human infant. Source: SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University.

Did a Common Childhood Illness Take Down the Neanderthals?

A 21st century nuisance for parents may have proved deadly to early man . It is one of the great unsolved mysteries of anthropology. What killed off the Neanderthals , and why did Homo sapiens thrive...
Archaeologists have discovered hundreds of Neanderthal footprints in France dating to around 80,000 years ago, mostly from children. (trendobjects/AdobeStock)

The Pitter Patter of Tiny Neanderthal Feet Echo Across Time as Footprints Found in France

They walked and perhaps played along the beach in a prehistoric world; we know this as archaeologists have discovered hundreds of Neanderthal footprints in France— with most of them left by children...
Representation of discovery of the skeleton at the Rakhigarhi archaeological site. Source: Elena / Adobe Stock.

DNA of 5,000-Year-Old Woman Links Modern Indians to Ancient Indus Valley Civilization

Ancient DNA from India’s Rakhigarhi archaeological site is telling volumes about the destiny of the mysterious Indus Valley Civilization. Around 3000 BC, Neolithic hunters in northern Scotland began...
Neanderthals have been commonly found to suffer from ear problems. Source: Kovalenko I / Adobe Stock

Half of Neanderthal Population Suffered from Surfer’s Ear!

A new study suggests that Neanderthals commonly suffered from “swimmer's ear” or “surfer’s ear” - dense bony growths that protrude into the ear canal. This is usually caused by a habitual exposure to...
Young chimpanzee. On Right - Human Embryo. Source: Left, Public Domain; Right, CC BY-SA 2.0.

World’s First Human-Monkey Hybrid Created In China

A team of American and Spanish scientists relocated to China to jump European laws and they have created the world’s first human-monkey embryo, in the next step in the controversial breeding of...
Representation of a Neanderthal, one of the five archaic human groups. Source: regis allouet /Adobe Stock

Modern Humans Interbred With At Least Five Archaic Human Groups

Genetic analysis has revealed that the ancestors of modern humans interbred with at least five different archaic human groups as they moved out of Africa and across Eurasia. While two of the archaic...
Photograph (top) and tracing (bottom) of an engraved human bone fragment found at Lingjing in China’s Henan Province. Source: Francesco d’Errico and Luc Doyon / Fair Use.

Oldest Human Bone Engraved and Painted By Hominid Found In China

In China a team of archaeologists has made a significant discovery after examining a human bone that may be up to 125,000 years old . They found a small bone that shows signs that it was cut and then...
Artists impression of the bird with a third toe 41 per cent longer than the second toe. Source: Zhongda Zhang/Current Biology

Unique Bird With Bizarrely Long Toe Found Fossilized in Amber

Meet the ancient bird that had toes longer than its lower legs. Researchers have discovered a bird foot from 99 million years ago preserved in amber that had a hyper-elongated third toe. The study,...
Representative image of a Denisovan. Several studies have recently explored the spread of Denisovan genes. Source: ginettigino /Adobe Stock

March of the Denisovans: Evidence of Archaic Human Gene Now Detected In the Orient

The Denisovan story keeps evolving. This group of ancient hominins has been something of a mystery ever since they were first discovered in 2010 as an extinct sister group to the Neanderthals. Bits...
Portrait of a Maasai warrior in Africa, Diani beach    Source: shangarey / Adobe Stock

The Maasai Legend Behind Ancient Hominin Footprints in Tanzania

In 1976 paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey and other scientists reported that they’d found ancient hominin footprints at a site in Laetoli, northeastern Tanzania. The footprints were frozen in volcanic...
A new study explores why humans are ‘the fat primates.’ Source: Vadym / Adobe Stock

What Made Humans 'The Fat Primate'? (It’s Far Deeper Than Diet)

Blame junk food or a lack of exercise. But long before the modern obesity epidemic, evolution made us fat too. "We're the fat primates," said Devi Swain-Lenz, a postdoctoral associate in biology at...
A new study of the Japanese population reveals the true origin of the Japanese people. Source: Monkey Business / Adobe Stock.

Archeological Mystery Solved with Modern Genetics: Y Chromosomes Reveal Population Boom and Bust in Ancient Japan

The current thinking on the origins of the Japanese population holds that the original inhabitants, the Jomon people , were met about 2,500 years ago by a separate group coming mainly from the Korean...

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