The field of Science has much to contribute to our understanding of human origins. There is a growing body of scientists who point to ever more reasons for doubting the standard evolutionary story and who provide cause to look in new directions.
For centuries, we’ve imagined Neanderthals as distant cousins — a separate species that vanished long ago. But thanks to AI-powered genetic research, scientists have revealed a far more entangled...
Bo Li et al/ The Conversation Ancient wooden tools found at a site in Gantangqing in southwestern China are approximately 300,000 years old , new dating has shown. Discovered during excavations...
A new discovery in Uruguay has possibly pushed the earliest evidence for human presence in South America back by thousands of years. Scientists studying a 33,000-year-old heel bone from a giant...
In a breakthrough that redefines our understanding of early Egyptian population history, scientists have sequenced the first complete ancient genome from Egypt, revealing that a man buried over 4,500...
In a discovery that reshapes our understanding of Neanderthal intelligence and survival strategies, researchers have unearthed the earliest known evidence of large-scale bone grease rendering-a...
In the shadowed depths of Margaux Cave in Belgium's Meuse Valley, archaeologists in the late 1980s uncovered the scattered remains of at least nine women who had lived during the Mesolithic period,...
In a groundbreaking discovery that reshapes our understanding of Mediterranean prehistory, archaeologists uncovered the earliest and largest known agricultural complex in Africa outside the Nile...
Deep in the green border of Kenya and Tanzania is a volcanic crater lake that quietly keeps an ancient geophysical journal. For thousands of years, Lake Chala has lain in a volcanic caldera, its calm...
An international genomics study led by scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) at the Singapore Center for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) and...
The idea that dinosaurs were already in decline before an asteroid wiped most of them out 66 million years ago may be explained by a worsening fossil record from that time rather than a genuine...
Archaeology, the study of human history through the excavation and analysis of artifacts, structures, and other material remains, offers a window into the lives of ancient civilizations. While...
How and when did dinosaurs first emerge and spread across the planet more than 200 million years ago? That question has for decades been a source of debate among paleontologists faced with fragmented...
The famous 3.2 million-year-old relative found in Ethiopia in the 1970s, Lucy, has been the subject of a new study that has shown that our early ancestor could run upright, but not very fast – a mere...
A pair of scientists who study hominin fossils and human evolution in China and East Asia claim to have discovered a new human ancestor that appeared during the Late Quaternary or Middle Pleistocene...
In this episode, Dr. Brian S. Bauer, a Full Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, takes us on a journey through his archaeological investigations of...
The pace of human physical development is slower than that of other primates, meaning that it takes us longer to move from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. Scientists have long believed...
Chinese researchers have digitally recreated the facial contours and features of a man from the Hongshan culture, during the Neolithic period, roughly 5,000-years-old. Using advanced 3D technology,...
The mysterious Denisovans, perhaps the most elusive of all the archaic hominin species, emerged following their divergence from Neanderthals approximately 400,000 years ago. Like Neanderthals, these...
In modern medicine, urine samples are routinely examined in laboratories to obtain clinical information about a patient. This procedure, known as urinalysis, developed from an ancient medical process...
Kissing has been a popular practice in human society for an eternity. But its evolutionary roots are somewhat of a mystery, given the fact that it is a pleasant activity that would seem to offer no...
In a remarkable fusion of software technologies and human imagination, we are now able to experience disparate worlds simultaneously. Seamlessly intertwined, the past meets the present and cultures...
In this engaging podcast episode, Dr. Robert Barratt, a research scientist at Queen’s University in Belfast, discusses his innovative application of computer code to investigate the astronomical...
Billions of years ago Earth was bombarded with meteorites of all sizes and shapes. Approximately 3.26 years ago, the biggest of these, which is known as S2, hit the planet in an area of what is now...
A new study by an international team of scientists has found evidence that ancient elephant fossils recovered in the Kashmir Valley of South Asia were butchered by archaic human ancestors. This would...