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Neanderthal

Romano-British silver toothpick. (The British Museum) An ivory toothpick found in India. (The British Museum) A gold case with matching a tooth and earpicks.

The Strange History of the Toothpick: Neanderthal Tool, Deadly Weapon, and Luxury Possession

A toothpick – the go-to little tool you select after a meal of corn on the cob, an object you absentmindedly chew on while listening to an unremarkable conversation, the piece of wood you carelessly...
Painting ‘The Stone Age.’

Why are Humans Threatened by the Achievements of Our Hominid Ancestors?

The ancestors of modern humans (Homo sapiens) were not the grunting, drooling, primitive, brutes that you see depicted in cartoons or movies. Decades of research and countless studies have shown that...
Map of sites and postulated migratory pathways associated with modern humans dispersing across Asia during the Late Pleistocene.

Updates on Out of Africa – Revising the Story of the Dispersal of Modern Humans Across Eurasia

Most people are now familiar with the traditional "Out of Africa" model: modern humans evolved in Africa and then dispersed across Asia and reached Australia in a single wave about 60,000 years ago...
Interior view of the cave and excavation trench as of the end of the 2012 field season.

Neanderthals Survived at least 3,000 Years Longer in Spain Than We Thought

Neanderthals survived at least 3,000 years longer than we thought in Southern Iberia -- what is now Spain - long after they had died out everywhere else, according to new research published in...
Detail of a man depicted on an Uruk vase, Pergamon Museum. The Uruk civilization arose as it expertly adapted to the new climate.

Rising to the Challenge: Innovative Civilizations Advanced Through Climate Change

Beginning around 90,000 years ago, during an interglacial period, Anatomically Modern Humans were able to take advantage of the favorable climatic conditions and migrate throughout Africa and into...
Representation of a Neanserthal boy at the Neanderthal Museum, Krapina, Croatia. (Michael (a.k.a. moik) McCullough/CC BY NC ND 2.0) Skeleton of the Neanderthal boy recovered from the El Sidrón cave (Asturias, Spain). (Paleoanthropology Group MNCN-CSIC)

Reconstructing How Neanderthals Grew, Based on an El Sidrón Child

How did Neanderthals grow? Does modern man develop in the same way as Homo neanderthalensis did? How does the size of the brain affect the development of the body? A study led by the Spanish National...
Neanderthal man at the Natural History Museum London

Refined Analysis Asserts There was No Human-Neanderthal Interaction at Vindija Cave

Researchers have used a more refined screening method in conjunction with radiocarbon dating on a popular collection of Neanderthal remains found at Vindija Cave in Croatia. Their results show that...
Tar collected in a birch bark container from the pit roll experiment, a technique which uses glowing embers placed over a roll of bark in a small pit.

How Neanderthals Made the Very First Glue 200,000-Years-Ago

The world's oldest known glue was made by Neanderthals. But how did they make it 200,000 years ago? Leiden archaeologists have discovered three possible ways and published their findings in...
Reconstruction of what a Neanderthal may have looked like in the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany

The Widespread Appearance of Neanderthal DNA: Africans Have It Too

It has long been argued that Neanderthal derived DNA is found in all non-Africans. As a result, it has been assumed that Africans fail to carry Neanderthal ancestry… even though Neanderthal skeletons...
Representation of a group of Neanderthals.

Toolmaking Teachers? Surprising Skills Shared Between Neanderthals and Modern Humans

50,000-year-old tools made from deer ribs suggest modern humans may have learned tool-making from Neanderthals. Found in the southwest of France, these artifacts add to a growing body of evidence...
Cro Magnon diorama showing a mammoth bone shelter.

Did Man and Mammoth Ever Live in Harmony? Not Quite…

Humans and mammoths coexisted in Europe for about 30,000 years. As a result, it makes sense that humans would have used mammoths and their remains for food and possibly for making clothing and even...
The unbroken mastodon ribs and vertebrae, including one vertebra with a large well preserved neural spine.

History Rewritten! Early Humans were in North America 130,000 Years Ago

An amazing find at an Ice Age site in San Diego, California may dramatically alter the accepted timeline for when early humans first reached North America. 130,000-year-old bones and teeth of a...
Depiction of what the ancient 'Herto Man' may have looked like. His skull dates to 160,000 years ago.

A Serendipitous Skull Discovery in Ethiopia: Is This the Oldest Known Modern Man?

The El Niño weather phenomenon of 1996-97 wrecked havoc on many parts of the world; however, it also enabled one team of scientists to make an incredible discovery. When the skies cleared and the...
Cannibal feast on the Island of Tanna, New Hebrides by Charles E. Gordon Frazer (1863-1899).

Our Ancestors Were Cannibals – and Probably Not Because They Needed the Calories

James Cole / The Conversation In the recently released horror movie Raw , a lifelong vegetarian teenager arrives at a veterinary school and, after being forced to consume a rabbit kidney at a student...
An artist’s impression of the El Sidron Neanderthals who were likely gathering much of their food, rather than hunting large game. Source: CSIC Spain, Author provided

The New Paleo? The Staples of Neanderthal Diets Unlocked by Looking at the Gunk in Their Teeth

Alan Cooper & Laura Weyrich / The Conversation The typical vision of Neanderthals has not been particularly flattering, often featuring a giant club and spear and unfortunate sartorial choices...
Researchers Want to Get the Dirt on How Much Neanderthals and Modern Humans had Sex

Researchers Want to Get the Dirt on How Much Neanderthals and Modern Humans had Sex

Would you have sex with a Homo sapiens neanderthalensis if they hadn’t gone extinct? Your ancestors may have. Scientists are testing cave dirt for the presence of Neanderthal DNA from disintegrated...
Top 10 Archaeological Discoveries of 2016: From Lost Cities to Ancient Tombs, Shrines, Maps and Unknown Species

Top 10 Archaeological Discoveries of 2016: From Lost Cities to Ancient Tombs, Shrines, Maps and Unknown Species

This year has provided an array of exciting, and sometimes puzzling, discoveries for archaeologists and ancient history enthusiasts. Looking back to our most ancient ancestors, a few of the...
50,000-Year-Old Needle Found in Siberian Cave AND It Was Not Made by Homo Sapiens

50,000-Year-Old Needle Found in Siberian Cave AND It Was Not Made by Homo Sapiens

By The Siberian Times reporter A sensational discovery in Denisova Cave is at least 50,000-years-old BUT it wasn't made by Homo sapiens. The 7-centimeter (2 3/4 inch) needle was made and used by our...
Schizophrenia Emerged After Humans Diverged from Neanderthals

Schizophrenia Emerged After Humans Diverged from Neanderthals

Schizophrenia poses an evolutionary enigma. The disorder has existed throughout recorded human history and persists despite its severe effects on thought and behavior, and its reduced rates of...
Biggest Known Genetic Difference Between Humans and Neanderthals May Be Related to Autism

Biggest Known Genetic Difference Between Humans and Neanderthals May Be Related to Autism

A recent study says that a genetic change suddenly arose in the primate family tree about about 280,000 years ago. The researchers claim it is responsible for the largest genetic difference between...
A view of the fossilized, 1.7-million-year-old hominin toe bone upon which the cancerous tumor was diagnosed.

Researchers Diagnose Earliest Known Cancer on 1.7-Million-Year-Old Hominin Fossil

Scientists have identified a particularly lethal form of cancer on the fossilized toe bone of an early human relative who lived about 1.7 million years ago in South Africa. The tumor is the oldest...
Painting of Neanderthals by Charles Robert Knight, 1920

Neanderthal Group Cannibalized their Dead and Used Human Bones as Tools

Evidence shows Neanderthals were killing each other and eating the remains about 40,000 years ago in a cave in Belgium, new research shows. They apparently extracted marrow from the bones and used...
Chiseling Away at the Mystery of the Neanderthal Mask of La Roche-Cotard

Chiseling Away at the Mystery of the Neanderthal Mask of La Roche-Cotard

A piece of flat flint may have been shaped by the hands of a Neanderthal who once lived near the cave La Roche-Cotard in the territory of Langeais, France. Many people see a face in this artifact,...
The Genetic History of Ice Age Europe

The Genetic History of Ice Age Europe

Analyses of ancient DNA from prehistoric humans paint a picture of dramatic population change in Europe from 45,000 to 7,000 years ago, according to a new study led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute...

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