When the human genome was first discovered, it revealed some amazing genetic secrets – modern humans are way more complicated than we originally thought. During a long evolution , humankind picked up...
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...
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...
The earliest evidence of facial piercing may have been found on the skeleton of a man who lived in East Africa towards the end of the Late Pleistocene (20,000 to 12,000 years ago). The key to the new...
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...
Between 117,000 and 108,000 years the end was nigh for the hominins we call Homo erectus . They were the first of our ancestors to stand tall and walk upright, but even this ancient human species...
A new genetic study of 1739 Asian individuals from 219 populations has found that on the Indian sub-continent today Denisovan DNA exists mostly among isolated, tribal communities. It also found that...
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...
Did ancient supernovae induce proto-humans to walk on two legs, eventually resulting in Homo sapiens with hands free to build cathedrals, design rockets and snap iPhone selfies? A paper published...
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...
Research into the Denisovan story is always fascinating. 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...
The annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists held at the end of March in Cleveland, Ohio, was eagerly awaited by those with an interest in human origins as it would be...
A multi-disciplinary and multi-national team of archaeologists, anthropologists and geneticists in Siberia have announced the sensational discovery of a new hominid species that interbred with our...
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...
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-...
The nearly complete skeleton of a female hominid known as ‘ Little Foot’ discovered in a South African cave more than 20 years ago was finally freed from her stone casing, and researchers have...