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The skull of Paranthropus boisei, known as KNM ER 406, photographed at the Nairobi National Museum in August 2012.                    Source: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen/CC BY-SA 3.0

Paranthropus-Our Most Mysterious Extinct Cousins (Video)

In the tapestry of human evolution , the enigmatic Paranthropus emerges as a parallel cousin to our Homo ancestors. Discovered in South and East Africa in the late 1930s, these hominins, including...
Panoramic photograph of the rocky shore platform on the Larache area coast of Morocco where the 90000-year-old footprints were found. The area delimited by the dotted red line corresponds to the footprint discovery zone. Source: M. Sedrati, et al/Nature

90,000-Years-Old Footprints Discovered On Moroccan Beach

85 human footprints dating to 90,000-years-ago have been found on a beach in Morocco. But how did they get there, and what were the people doing? In 1964, when Margaret Fishback Powers wrote the...
Australopithecus Afarensis, Lucy. Source: Carlos Lorenzo/flickr

How Did Our Most Famous Ancient Ancestor Really Die? (Video)

In the prehistoric landscape of eastern Africa, approximately 3 million years ago, a significant event unfolded, shaping the fate of one of our most famous ancestors, Australopithecus afarensis ,...
Depiction of what the ancient 'Herto Man' may have looked like. His skull dates to 160,000 years ago. Source: Bradshaw Foundation

Herto Man: A 160,000-Year-Old Window into Homo Sapiens' Ancestry

The Herto Man is a common name for a group of prehistoric human remains that were discovered in 1997, in the Afar Triangle in Ethiopia, in the famed Bouri Formation that yielded many ancient fossils...
Reconstruction of the Piltdown Man hoax hominin by Cicero Moraes et al.	Source: (© Cicero Moraes et al.)

Hoax Hominin ‘Piltdown Man’ Could Equally Be ‘Piltdown Woman’

The Piltdown Man scandal is arguably the greatest scientific fraud ever perpetrated in the UK, with faked fossils being claimed as evidence of our earliest ancestor. It is highly likely that an...
Human evolution was shaped as prehistoric humans interbred with other homininsSource: Gorodenkoff/Adobe Stock

Human Evolution and Interbreeding: When We Met Other Human Species (Video)

Our existence as Homo sapiens is a solitary chapter in the intricate narrative of hominin evolution . Long before we stood as the sole representatives of our lineage, our ancestors engaged with other...
Did a tribe of cannibals encounter the Denisovans. Source: to_go / Adobe Stock.

Did A Tribe of Cannibals Interbreed with the Denisovans? (Video)

In the untamed landscapes of Island Southeast Asia, scientists investigating the mysterious a group of hominins called the Denisovans have stumbled upon a revelation that challenges conventional...
Diorama of Homo erectus using tools at Parc de Préhistoire de Bretagne.       Source: Bas Kers (NL)/CC BY NC-SA 2.0 DEED

Homo Erectus Mastered Oldowan and Acheulean Tools 2 Million Years Ago

While they first appeared on the lowland savannas of East Africa around two million years ago, the human ancestor Homo erectus soon expanded their range into the Ethiopian highlands. According to a...
Homo Naledi facial reconstruction. Source: Cicero Moraes / CC by SA 4.0.

Discovering Homo Naledi’s Meaningful Burials (Video)

In the world of groundbreaking discoveries, the revelation that Homo naledi practiced burial rituals and employed symbols for communication stands as a potent reminder that our understanding of our...
Left; Kalambo Falls, Zambia where the oldest wooden structure was found. Right: the excavation team uncovering the ancient wood.	Source: Left; Professor Geoff Duller/Nature, Right; Professor Larry Barham/Nature

World’s Oldest Wooden Structure Found in Zambia – It’s Half a Million Years Old!

At the Kalambo Falls archaeological site in northeastern Zambia , archaeologists recovered specimens of ancient wood in the form of logs that had been preserved in waterlogged sand next to the...
Possible hominin tracks with footwear in the Garden Route National Park, South Africa. Source: Charles Helm/The Conversation

Tracks on a South African Beach Offer Oldest Evidence Yet of Human Footwear

Charles Helm /The Conversation When and where did our ancestors first fashion footwear? We cannot look to physical evidence of shoes for the answer, as the perishable materials from which they were...
Flores hobbits may have arrived on leaf baskets.  Here they interact with stegodons and Komodo dragon. Source: Peter Schouten

Flores Hobbits May Have Floated to the Island on Leaf Nests

While Frodo in Tolkien’s Middle Earth ventured very far to destroy a magic ring and Gollum was a good swimmer, real-life ‘hobbit’ ancestors may have also traversed far to get to their island! After...
Skull from specimen HLD 6 at Hualongdong, now identified as a new archaic human species. Source: Wu et al./Journal of Human Evolution

Discovery of New Archaic Human Species Announced by Chinese Scientists

A team of evolutionary scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, several Chinese universities and the National Research Center on Human Evolution in Spain has shocked the scientific world by...
Representation of an Australopithecus family. The evolution of human birth takes us back to Australopithecus afarensis like “Lucy” that may have required some help in childbirth. Source:  Andrii/Adobe Stock

The Evolution of Human Birth: An Incredible Story a Million Years in the Making

Australopithecus afarensis, a human ancestor could have given birth in a way that combines the childbirth practices of chimpanzees and human beings a team of scientists have claimed. They reported...
A comparison of great ape and human skeletons in genetic move to bipedalism. Source: Alexander Potapov/ Adobe Stock

New Study Sheds Light on Genetic Human Skeletal Changes that Led to Bipedalism

Researchers have conducted a groundbreaking study using imaging data from over 30,000 participants in the UK Biobank to gain insights into the genetic basis of human skeletal proportions and their...
Top image: Homo erectus reconstruction. Source: AlienCat/Adobe Stock

Homo Erectus: Why Did the Most Successful Early Human Go Extinct? (Video)

Homo erectus , the remarkably successful early human species, emerged around two million years ago in Africa. With a brain size of 900 to 1000 cubic centimeters, Homo erectus showcased the first...
Dr Lee Berger with hashtag carving in Rising Star cave system. Insert; Possible Homo naledi burial pit. 	Source: © Berger et al., 2023

Enigmatic Hominin Seemingly Buried Dead and Carved Symbols 100,000 Years Before Modern Humans

A groundbreaking series of papers published yesterday proposes that Homo naledi , an ancient human species, engaged in burial practices and created engravings deep within a cave system in southern...
Researchers have found evidence in South Africa that Homo naledi used controlled fire within caves. Insert: Homo naledi facial reconstruction.  Source: Brilliant Eye / Adobe Stock, Insert; Cicero Moraes (Arc-Team) et alii, CC BY 4.0

Shocking Evidence Homo Naledi Used Fire 230,000 Years Ago

Ground-breaking new evidence has emerged from South Africa that suggests that Homo sapiens may not have been the first species to use controlled fire. Fossil remains of Homo naledi were discovered in...
A new study shows that humans and Neanderthals lived together in Europe for 2000 years. Source: athree23 / CC BY-SA 4.0

Modern Humans and Neanderthals Lived Together in Europe for 2,000 Years!

When Homo sapiens first arrived on the European continent about 42,500 years ago, the Neanderthals were still living there, and would remain there for another 1,400 to 2,900 years before finally...
Part of the earliest European face, a 1.4-million-year-old jawbone recently excavated from Sima de Elefante cave, Spain. Source: Atapuerca Foundation

Breakthrough: Excavators Find the Oldest European Face Ever Discovered

The discovery of a 1.4-million-year-old human ancestor in Spain was in itself a history changing moment. But to discover it looked like us, “forces us to rewrite the books on human evolution,” claims...
Weekly Top Stories: A Quick Catch Up On What You Missed

Weekly Top Stories: A Quick Catch Up On What You Missed

In last week’s top stories; doubts cast on Neo-Darwinist theory, where did you get your features from? European traits tracked, Nottingham’s man-made cave system, fantastic 5,000-year-old drum...
The Cradle of Humankind visitors’ complex in Maropeng, South Africa.	Source: Olga Ernst / CC BY-SA 4.0

Denizens of South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind: The First Walking Apes

The human story begins in Africa. Of the many fascinating fossil sites in Africa, an important one is the Cradle of Humankind outside of Johannesburg, South Africa. The many caves and rock outcrops...
A top (a), rear (b), bottom (c) and front (d) view of the vertebra discovered at 'Ubeidiya	Source:  Dr. Alon Barash, Bar-Ilan University

1.5-Million-Year-Old Human Remains Point to Two Waves Out of Africa

Human bones uncovered in Israel have been dated to 1.5 million years with repercussions for the Out of Africa theory. What they tell researchers is that our ancient relatives left Africa in two waves...
The Top 10 Human Evolution Discoveries in 2021. Source: Ancient Origins

The Top 10 Revelations in Human Evolution in 2021

The year 2021 was filled with all kinds of human evolution discoveries and scientific progress. From the 250,000-year-old skeletal remains of a Homo naledi child in South Africa, to the smiley face...

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