Anatomy News

Our Ancient Ancestors May Have Climbed Trees with ‘Monkey’ Feet

Drummond-Clarke et al. show that trees were an essential component of the hominin adaptive niche, with bipedalism evolving in an arboreal context, likely driven by foraging strategy. Illustration by Arturo Asensio, via Quo.es.
Aug 25, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

An enduring debate in paleoanthropology asks what kind of foot the last common ancestor (LCA) of humans and chimpanzees had: one built like a modern ape’s for climbing straight up trees, or one built more like a generalized monkey’s, less suited to vertical climbing. In new research, paleoanthropologists from Dartmouth College and Ohio State University found that vertically-climbing monkeys called sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys) can flex their...

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Reconstruction of a Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

Neanderthal Pelvis May Reveal Why Modern Men and Women Walk Differently

Aug 18, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A Neanderthal pelvis — the basin-shaped ring of bones at the base of the spin — discovered decades ago may help explain an unusual feature...

An artist’s rendering of a Homo antecessor individual known as the Girl of Gran Dolina. Image credit: Tom Björklund.

Homo antecessor Had Surprisingly Modern Skull, New Fossils Suggest

Aug 10, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new analysis of three skull fragments unearthed at the Gran Dolina cave site in Spain indicates that Homo antecessor had bone thickness closer to that...

Reconstruction of the face of StW 573. Image credit: A. Beaudet.

Scientists Digitally Reconstruct Face of ‘Little Foot’

Mar 3, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Beyond their value for classification and evolutionary relationships, changes in the size and shape of the hominin face through time can reflect important...

Ardipithecus ramidus, a hominid that lived in Africa more then 4 million years ago. Illustration by Arturo Asensio, via Quo.es.

New Research Reveals How Reshaping Pelvis Helped Human Ancestors Walk Upright

Aug 27, 2025 by News Staff

The pelvis is often called the keystone of upright locomotion. More than any other part of our lower body, it has been radically altered over millions...

A model of a Neanderthal man in modern clothing. Image credit: H. Neumann / Neanderthal Museum.

Serious Neurological Condition May Be Linked to Neanderthal Genes

Jul 22, 2025 by News Staff

Interbreeding between anatomically modern Homo sapiens and Neanderthals thousands of years ago may be responsible for Chiari Malformation Type 1, a serious...

Visualization of a soft tissue of Edmontosaurus created by photography, 3D modeling, digital painting, and histology of bones from Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada. Image credit: Henry Sharpe.

Paleontologists Discover Previously Unknown Connective Tissue Structure in Dinosaurs

Jun 2, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have found evidence of a previously unrecognized soft tissue structure in the cheek region of many dinosaur species, which they’ve called...

Life reconstruction of Australopithecus sediba commissioned by the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. Image credit: Elisabeth Daynes / S. Entressangle.

Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi Used Different Types of Hand Grips, Study Suggests

May 20, 2025 by News Staff

Australopithecus sediba — a small hominin species that lived about 2 million years ago — had a mix of ape-like and human-like features, while...

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

New Study Suggests That There Was Late Bottleneck Event in Neanderthal Evolution

Feb 20, 2025 by News Staff

This bottleneck event happened between 130,000 and 50,000 years ago, according to new research led by scientists from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona...

Positions of electrodes used to cover the superior auricular muscles. Image credit: Schroeer et al., doi: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1462507.

Auricular Muscles Scientists Thought We Didn’t Use Actually Activate When We Listen Hard

Jan 31, 2025 by News Staff

If you can wiggle your ears, you can use the auricular muscles, which helped our distant ancestors listen closely. These muscles helped change the shape...

Zwebner et al. investigated the possibility of a self-fulfilling prophecy effect wherein individuals’ facial appearance develops over time to resemble the social stereotypes associated with given names. Image credit: Zwebner et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2405334121.

Can Given Names Shape Individuals’ Facial Appearance?

Jul 30, 2024 by News Staff

Our given name is a social tag associated with us early in life. Prior research has shown that individuals’ facial appearance can be indicative of their...

The facial reconstruction of the La Chapelle-aux-Saints Neanderthal. Image credit: Moraes et al.

Scientists Reconstruct Face of La Chapelle-aux-Saints Neanderthal

Nov 21, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleoanthropologists have reconstructed the face of a Neanderthal man whose 56,000-year-old remains were found at La Chapelle-aux-Saints in south-central...

Frontal view of the portrait of Homo heidelbergensis from Petralona, Greece, with hair and skin pigmentation. Image credit: Aidonis et al., doi: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.104206.

Anthropologists Reconstruct Face of Homo heidelbergensis

Oct 13, 2023 by Sergio Prostak

Anthropologists in Greece have used facial reconstruction techniques to show how Homo heidelbergensis, a poorly understood relative of Neanderthals that...

Sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys). Image credit: Luke Fannin, Dartmouth College.

‘Downclimbing’ from Trees Played Role in Early-Human Evolution

Sep 7, 2023 by News Staff

Early humans and apes likely evolved free-moving shoulders and flexible elbows to slow their descent from trees as gravity pulled on their heavier bodies,...

A group of Australopithecus afarensis. Image credit: Matheus Vieeira.

Paleoanthropologist Reconstructs Missing Soft Tissues of 3.2 Million-Year-Old ‘Lucy’

Jun 14, 2023 by News Staff

Soft tissues rarely preserve in the fossil record, rather scientists are mostly left with just the skeletal material. Yet, muscles animate the body. They...

An artist’s impression of Nombe nombe (right) and other prehistoric animals from Nombe Rockshelter, Papua New Guinea. Image credit: Peter Shouten.

Ancient Kangaroos Didn’t Hop, Paleontologists Say

Jun 13, 2023 by News Staff

In a new study, paleontologists from the United Kingdom and Sweden reviewed the fossil evidence of locomotion of kangaroos and their relatives (wallabies,...

The larynx is an organ in the top of the neck involved in breathing, producing sound and protecting the trachea against food aspiration. Image credit: OpenStax College / CC BY 3.0.

Simplified Voice Box Enabled Complex Humans Speech, New Research Suggests

Aug 12, 2022 by News Staff

Human speech and language are highly complex, consisting of a large number of sounds. The human larynx (voice box) has acquired the capability to create...

Embryological series of Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) showing the transition from ancestral to derived pelvic states across avian prehatching ontogeny: (a) pelvic reconstructions along the evolutionary transition to living birds; note that pelves are shown as examples of character states and are not in one-to-one correspondence with ontogenetic stages; (b) during ontogeny, the ilium extends first posteriorly and then anteriorly, the pubis retroverts, the tail becomes relatively reduced and a transient pubic boot appears at intermediate ontogenetic stages; (c) the CFL (M. caudofemoralis longus homologue) is large during early ontogenetic stages; the IF (M. iliofemoralis homologue) originates smaller and further back on the ilium before expanding anteriorly to the derived condition and never splits into two muscles as seen in the adult; and PIFE1+2 (Mm. puboischiofemoralis externus 1 et 2 homologues) fail to fully differentiate until after the pubis is retroverted; muscles that are not highlighted are in gray; (d) the derived pelvic spinal nerve arrangement in birds (top), with additional spinal nerves contributing to the sacral plexus and nerves in Coturnix embryos (bottom). Scale bars - 1 mm in (b and d), 2 mm in (c). Image credit: Griffin et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04982-w.

Study: Developing Bird Hip Bone Passes through Ancestral Dinosaurian Conditions

Aug 8, 2022 by News Staff

Living birds have bodies substantially modified from the ancestral reptilian condition. The bird pelvis (hip bone) in particular experienced major changes...

This illustration shows the location of the newly-identified tubarial glands. Image credit: Netherlands Cancer Institute.

Tubarial Glands: New Organ Discovered in Human Body

Oct 21, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Our body contains a pair of previously overlooked and clinically relevant nasopharyngeal salivary glands, according to new research led by the Netherlands...

Lucas et al. find that the prevalence of the persistent median artery in postnatal life approximately tripled over the last 125 years. Image credit: C.M. Da Silva.

Humans are Evolving Extra Artery in Forearm: Median Artery

Oct 12, 2020 by News Staff

The median artery of the human forearm is an example of microevolutionary changes in the internal anatomy of the human body, according to new research...

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