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Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ Mobile

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Reconstruction of the locomotor behavior and paleoenvironment of Lufengpithecus.	Source: Illustration by Xiaocong Guo; image courtesy of Xijun Ni, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

How Did Humans Learn to Walk? New Evolutionary Study Offers an Earful

New York University Humans and our closest relatives, living apes, display a remarkable diversity of types of locomotion—from walking upright on two legs to climbing in trees and walking using all...
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...
Human evolution. Source: pict rider / Adobe Stock.

The Incredible Odyssey of Mankind: Ape to Human in a Million Years (Video)

In this fascinating video, the evolution from ape to man is traced, beginning with the Proconsul, a fruit-eating creature that lived in African trees about 20 million years ago. As the African jungle...
A facial reconstruction of Homo floresiensis, which Forth’s book views as a transitional species between primates and hominins. Source: Cicero Moraes et alii / CC BY 4.0

Is Ancient Human Species Homo Floresiensis Still Alive in Indonesia?

In his newly published book Between Ape and Human , retired anthropologist Gregory Forth breaks the taboo that normally separates traditional anthropological and zoological research from...
Neanderthal Public Relations: From Misconceptions To More Confusion

Neanderthal Public Relations: From Misconceptions To More Confusion

In the mid-nineteenth century AD, researchers and explorers began finding bones in the remote caves of Europe. At first, they believed these to be no different than modern human skulls, but as the...
Traditional ceremonial dress at Mount Hagan, Papua New Guinea.

Why are humans unique? It’s the small things that count

Can there be any more important a question than, ‘How did we get here?’ Of course, I don’t mean those books we all gawked at as tweens desperate to understand our transforming pubescent bodies. I...
A DNA molecule that is methylated on both strands on the center cytosine. DNA methylation plays an important role for epigenetic gene regulation in development and cancer

Ancient Ancestors Had More DNA Than We Do Now: Have we Devolved?

Adding to the number of unsolved mysteries regarding the ancient origins of humanity and the biology of our species, scientists have discovered that we have less DNA now than our ancient ancestors...