Anthropology News

Archaeologists Unearth 45,000-Year-Old Stone Tools in Mongolia

Aug 19, 2019 by News Staff

A collection of stone artifacts unearthed at the archaeological site of Tolbor-16 in the northern Khangai Mountains of Mongolia indicates that anatomically modern Homo sapiens traveled across the Eurasian steppe 45,000 years ago, about 10,000 years earlier than previously thought. The Tolbor-16 site (arrow) in the western flank of the Tolbor Valley, Mongolia. Image credit: Zwyns et al, doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-47972-1. “The site points to a new location...

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Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

Neanderthals and Ancient Humans Suffered from Swimmer’s Ear: Study

Aug 15, 2019 by News Staff

Exostoses of the ear canal — more commonly called swimmer’s ear — were surprisingly common in Neanderthals, according to new research by...

Reconstruction of Homo floresiensis. Image credit: Kinez Riza / Atelier Elisabeth Daynes, Sangiran Museum.

Humans Interbred with Four Extinct Hominin Species, Research Finds

Jul 29, 2019 by News Staff

As anatomically modern Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa and around the rest of the world, they met and interbred with at least four different hominin...

Photographs of the two engraved bone fragments from the site of Lingjing, China. Image credit: F. d’Errico & L. Doyon.

115,000-Year-Old Engraved Bones Found in China

Jul 19, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists digging at an early hominin site in China have discovered two engraved bone fragments that date back nearly 115,000 years. Photographs of...

Australopithecus africanus, a mother with an infant. Image credit: Jose Garcia & Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Southern Cross University.

Australopithecus Mothers Breastfed Their Infants for Year after Birth

Jul 17, 2019 by News Staff

A high-resolution trace-element analysis of 2.6-2.1-million-year-old teeth from an extinct hominin called Australopithecus africanus has revealed that...

Artist’s reconstruction of an Asian caveman. Image credit: Peter Schouten.

Enigmatic Skull Found in Greece Suggests Early Homo sapiens Reached Europe 210,000 Years Ago

Jul 11, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A 210,000-year-old partial skull found in southern Greece about four decades ago has been identified as the earliest example of anatomically modern Homo...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neanderthals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.

Modern Asians Acquired Rare Dental Trait from Denisovans: Study

Jul 10, 2019 by News Staff

A 3-rooted lower molar, a rare trait primarily found in modern Asian lineages, was previously thought to have evolved after Homo sapiens dispersed from...

Reconstruction of a Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

DNA of Early Neanderthals Reveals 80,000 Years of Genetic Continuity in Europe

Jun 27, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has sequenced the nuclear genomes of two Neanderthals who lived in Europe around 120,000 years ago. They found that...

The occasional use of stone tools as ‘strike-a-lights’ was a technocultural feature shared among Neanderthals in France.

Neanderthals Used Pine Resin as Glue to Haft Stone Tools into Handles

Jun 27, 2019 by News Staff

The hafting of stone tools was an important advance in the technological evolution of Paleolithic humans. Joining a handle to a knife or scraper and attaching...

This is an artist’s impression of Çatalhöyük. Image credit: Dan Lewandowski.

Neolithic Çatalhöyük Experienced Modern Urban Problems

Jun 18, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has found that the inhabitants of the Neolithic settlement Çatalhöyük (7100-5950 BCE) experienced overcrowding,...

A scientific illustration of the Upward Sun River camp in what is now Interior Alaska. Image credit: Eric S. Carlson / Ben A. Potter.

Genetic Analysis Reveals Previously Unknown Group of Ancient Siberians

Jun 7, 2019 by News Staff

Northeastern Siberia has been inhabited by humans for more than 40,000 years but its deep population history remains poorly understood. In a new study,...

A large rhyolite flake at the site of Bokol Dora 1, Ethiopia. Image credit: Braun et al, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1820177116.

Researchers Find 2.6-Million-Year-Old Oldowan Tools in Ethiopia

Jun 5, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has unearthed a collection of 2.6-million-year-old systematically flaked stone tools at the site of Bokol Dora 1 (BD1)...

Prehistoric rock paintings in Manda Guéli Cave in the Ennedi Mountains, Chad, Central Africa. Image credit: David Stanley / CC BY 2.0.

Ancient DNA Study Tells Story of East Africa’s First Herders and Farmers

May 30, 2019 by News Staff

How food production entered sub-Saharan Africa some 5,000 years ago and the ways in which herding and farming spread through the continent in ancient times...

Scholz’s star flew through the Oort Cloud 70,000 years ago. Image credit: José A. Peñas / SINC.

Did Nearby Supernovae Induce Hominins to Walk on Two Legs?

May 30, 2019 by News Staff

Between 8 and 2 million years ago, cosmic-ray energy from one or more nearby supernovae reached Earth and pummeled the planet’s atmosphere, initiating...

Early farmers. Image credit: sjs.org / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Pleistocene Humans Had Several Possible Routes of Dispersal across Asia, New Study Shows

May 29, 2019 by News Staff

New research demonstrates that Asian regions such as the Gobi Desert and the Altai Mountains could have periodically acted as corridors and routes for...

Anatomically modern humans cooked and ate plant starches, such as those from tubers and rhizomes, as early as 120,000 years ago.

Early Modern Humans Cooked and Ate Starchy Food

May 23, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has found numerous fragments of charred starch plant tissues in 120,000-year-old hearths at the archaeological site...

Sima de los Huesos hominins lived in what is now Spain about 400,000 years ago. Image credit: © Kennis & Kennis / Madrid Scientific Films.

Study: Last Common Ancestor of Neanderthals and Modern Humans Lived 800,000 Years Ago

May 16, 2019 by News Staff

A new study that analyzed dental evolutionary rates in early Neanderthals from Sima de los Huesos, a cave site in Atapuerca Mountains, Spain, found that...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neandertals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Mauro Cutrona.

160,000-Year-Old Denisovan Jawbone Discovered in Tibetan Cave

May 2, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

In 1980, a Buddhist monk found the right half a fossilized hominin jawbone in Baishiya Karst Cave on the Tibetan Plateau, Xiahe, China. An analysis of...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neandertals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Mauro Cutrona.

Two Independent Denisovan Lineages Contributed to Modern Papuan Genomes: Study

Apr 12, 2019 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Cell, modern Papuans carry hundreds of gene variants from two Denisovan lineages — distinct from...

An archaic hominin. Image credit: Ninara / CC BY 2.0.

Homo luzonensis: New Species of Ancient Human Discovered

Apr 11, 2019 by News Staff

An early human species with a unique mix of primitive (that is, Australopithecus-like) and derived (that is, Homo sapiens-like) morphological features...

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