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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.

Life on Mars

DNA Sequencing Microchip Could Detect Earth-Like Life on Mars

Conditions on Mars are harsh. Its atmosphere is made up mostly of carbon dioxide and is 100 times thinner than Earth’s. Temperatures on the surface can plummet to minus-126 degrees Celsius. But the...
Two men found at the Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site in northern Siberia in Russia date to about 32,000 years ago, providing the earliest direct evidence of humans in the region.           Source: Elena Pavlova

Ancient Origins Of North Americans Settled - And Hard Evidence Of “Russian” Collusion Unearthed

For at least the last century archaeologists and anthropologists have generally agreed that the first humans arrived in North America having struggled across the icy wastes of Beringia, a vast land...
300,000-year-old fossils of as many as 16 individual human ancestors have been found in a collapsed cave in China. Here is a reconstruction of a skull found at the site. Source: Wu Xiujie and Erik Trinkaus

Pleistocene Skull and 300,000 Years of Evolution Secrets Found in a Chinese Cave

In China, paleontologists have announced a very important discovery of human fossils and artifacts. They have uncovered a large number of fossils of early relatives of modern humans in a cave. The...
One of the chewing gums containing the oldest Scandinavian DNA from Huseby Klev with two plastelina casts for each side.

DNA of First Settlers of Scandinavia Gleaned from Ancient Chewing Gums

The first humans who settled in Scandinavia more than 10,000 years ago left their DNA behind in ancient chewing gums, which are masticated lumps made from birch bark pitch. This is shown in a new...
Skull of Malapa hominid 1 (MH1) from South Africa, named "Karabo". The combined fossil remains of this juvenile male is designated as the holotype for Australopithecus sediba.  Source: CC BY-SA 4.0

Statistical Date Analysis Concludes That 'Ancient Human' Was Not Our Ancestor

One of the great issues in all of science is the search for the direct ancestor of modern humans. Many species of hominin have been put forward down the years and a recently uncovered species...
Penablanca, Cagayan Province, Philippines, near the entrance to the limestone Callao Cave where there is evidence of a new human species. Source: Michael / Adobe. Inset: A foot bone from Homo luzonensis. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali)

How Much Evidence is Enough to Declare a New Species of Human from a Philippines Cave Site?

The announcement of a new species of ancient human (more correctly hominin) from the Philippines , reported today in Nature , will cause a lot of head-shaking among anthropologists and archaeologists...
DNA molecule representation

Ancient DNA Data Fills in Thousands of Years of Human Movement and Genetic Adaptation in Africa

By sequencing the ancient genomes of 15 individuals from different parts of Africa, researchers reporting in the journal Cell in September 2017 reconstructed the prehistory of humans on the continent...
Neanderthals and woolly mammoths seem to have shared more than just an environment.

Convergent Evolution: Neanderthals and Woolly Mammoths May Have Shared Genetic Traits

A new Tel Aviv University study suggests that the genetic profiles of two extinct mammals with African ancestry - woolly mammoths, elephant-like animals that evolved in the arctic peninsula of...
13,000-year-old Saharan remains

13,000-year-old Saharan Remains Tell Of First Known Homo Sapiens War In Africa

In 2014, a fresh analysis on a set of human remains dating back 13,000 years, which were found on the east bank of the Nile in northern Sudan , suggested the individuals were victims of an intergroup...
Pelicar - A Guanche king

Researchers Get Closer to Finding the Origins of the Enigmatic Guanches…and No, They are Not Atlanteans

The Guanches were the white-skinned and fair-haired aboriginal people of the Canary Islands. With their location so near to North Africa, their origins have long presented a mystery for researchers...
Denisovans mated with modern humans.

Modern Humans Could Have Mated With Denisovans as Recently as 15,000 Years Ago

A study has made a startling claim. It argues that an extinct species of humans, the Denisovans , may have mated with modern humans ( Homo sapiens ) as late as 15,000 years ago. This claim is based...
Modern human eyes (Konzentation)

Origin of Modern Human Behavior is South NOT East Africa [New Research]

Researchers from the University of Huddersfield, with colleagues from the University of Cambridge and the University of Minho in Braga, have been using a genetic approach to tackle one of the most...
Left; Whitehawk woman Right; Neanderthal Woman Reconstruction Exhibition, Brighton.

Facial Reconstruction Brings People Face-to-Face With Their Ancient Ancestors

Detailed data and minute details have both fed into an exhibition taking place In the English city of Brighton, that offers people a chance to see not only physical cultural items, but their ancient...
Portrait of three girls of different nationalities.

Genetic Breakthrough Changes the Way We View Skin Color

University College London / Science Daily Skin color is one of the most visible and variable traits among humans and scientists have always been curious about how this variation evolved. Now, a study...
DNA molecule spiral structure with unique connection.

Study Proves Human Mutation Rate Is Slower Than Believed Posing New Date For Human-Neanderthal Separation

By Christina Troelsen / Science Daily Researchers from Aarhus University, Denmark, and Copenhagen Zoo have discovered that the human mutation rate is significantly slower than for our closest primate...
New research suggests Neanderthal extinction was earlier than previously believed.

New Evidence Questions the Time and Place of Neanderthal Extinction

In recent years there have been a series of finds that have revolutionized our understanding of the Neanderthals and their extinction in Eurasia. It is widely held in academic circles that...
Key images from the top human origins stories of 2018: Sophisticated tools and large, all-purpose handaxes from the Olorgesailie Basin in Kenya. (Human Origins Program, Smithsonian) Drawing of a Neandertal mother and a Denisovan father with their child, a girl, at Denisova Cave in Russia. (Petra Korlević) Neanderthal cave art in La Pasiega, Spain (C.D Standish, A.W.G. Pike and D.L. Hoffmann) Photograph of a footprint beside digitally-enhanced image of the same feature. (Duncan McLaren) The left hemi-maxilla

Five Things We Learned About Our Human Origins in 2018

The question of what makes us human is one that is fascinating to most of us, and for many the answer lies in looking back to our roots as a species. 2018 was a fantastic year for learning new and...
Neanderthal vs human skull.

Artificial Intelligence Has Identified Previously Undetected Hominid in the Human Family Tree

By combining deep learning algorithms and statistical methods, investigators from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), the Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG-CRG) of the Centre for...
Study finds an archaic hominin had modern dental growth.(Inset: Two digitally reconstructed teeth)

104,000-Year-Old Tooth of Mysterious Hominin Child Raises Questions About Human Evolution

By Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg / Science Advances A relative of modern humans that lived at least 104,000 years ago in northern China showed evidence of dental growth and development very similar to...
Testing of DNA molecules

DNA Tool Allows You To Trace Your Ancient Ancestry

University of Sheffield Scientists at the University of Sheffield studying ancient DNA have created a tool allowing them to more accurately identify ancient Eurasian populations, which can be used to...
A piece of hematite found in Denisova cave was used as a crayon for art work in the cave.

Ancient Colored ‘Pencil’ Up To 50,000-Years-Old Found in Siberia

Cave-dwellers used hematite crayon for art work in Altai Mountains, say archeologists investigating a latest find in Siberia. The pre-historic artists were not Homo sapiens but Denisovans - a long-...
Early hominids processing game with stone tools. Diorama at the Nairobi National Museum.

Resourceful and Intelligent, Unidentified Hominins Flourished in Arabia Using “Old School” Stone Tools

Beginning more than 1.5 million years ago, early humans made stone handaxes in a style known as the Acheulean - the longest lasting tool-making tradition in prehistory. New research led by the Max...
Examples of developmental skeletal abnormalities in Pleistocene people. Left to right: the Tianyuan 1, Sunghir 3 and Dolní V stonice 15 abnormal femora, Center, top to bottom: the Palomas 23 mandibular "flange", the Rochereil 3 cranial lacuna, the long Sunghir 1 clavicle, the Malarnaud 1 incisor agenesis. Right, top to bottom: the Shanidar 1 sacral hiatus, the Pataud 1 polygenesis, and the Dolní V stonice 16 cleft palate.

‘Abundant’ Occurrence of Skeletal Abnormalities Found in Early Humans

An American researcher examining ancient human remains has made a potentially ground-breaking discovery. The expert found a huge number of abnormalities and defects that seem to indicate extensive...
Neanderthal man with spear in hand.

3D Ribcage Indicates Neanderthals Looked Nothing Like We Thought

An international team of scientists has completed the first 3D virtual reconstruction of the ribcage of the most complete Neanderthal skeleton unearthed to date, potentially shedding new light on how...

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