Anthropology News

An artist’s reconstruction of Homo heidelbergensis making a flint handaxe. Image credit: Gabriel Ugueto.

Early Humans were Present in Southeast Britain 620,000 Years Ago

Jun 23, 2022 by News Staff

The archaeological site of Fordwich in northeast Kent, England, reveals the presence of Acheulean hominins — possibly Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis...

Excavation area in Cueva de Ardales with evidence from the Middle Paleolithic period. Image credit: Ramos-Muñoz et al. / CC-BY 4.0.

Study: Spain’s Cueva de Ardales Was Used by Ancient Humans for Over 50,000 years

Jun 1, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Cueva de Ardales is a hugely important Paleolithic site in Malaga, Spain, owing to its rich inventory of rock art. According to new research, Neanderthals...

New Fossil Discovery Suggests Denisovans Lived in Laos 164,000-131,000 Years Ago

May 17, 2022 by News Staff

Paleoanthropologists have found a permanent lower molar of a young, likely female, hominin individual at the Tam Ngu Hao 2 limestone cave in the Annamite...

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

Scientists Have New Theory on Origin of State

Apr 11, 2022 by News Staff

The conventional theory about the origin of the state is that the adoption of farming increased land productivity, which led to the production of food...

View of Grotte Mandrin, France. Image credit: Ludovic Slimak.

54,000-Year-Old Molar is Earliest Known Evidence of Anatomically Modern Humans in Western Europe

Feb 11, 2022 by News Staff

In a new paper published this week in the journal Science Advances, paleoanthropologists report hominin fossils from Grotte Mandrin in France that reveal...

A view of the Omo-Kibish geological formation in southwestern Ethiopia. Credit: Céline Vidal.

Africa’s Oldest Known Modern Human Fossils are 233,000 Years Old, Research Suggests

Jan 19, 2022 by News Staff

In the 1960s, paleoanthropologists uncovered the remains of anatomically modern Homo sapiens — known as Omo I — in the lower Omo valley of...

El Sidron Neanderthals taste wild mushrooms, pine nuts and forest moss. Image credit: Abel Grau, CSIC Communication.

Study: Neanderthals Transformed Landscapes 125,000 Years Ago

Dec 21, 2021 by News Staff

According to an analysis of paleoenvironmental and archaeological data from the 125,000-year-old Neanderthal site of Neumark-Nord in Germany, our closest...

Laetoli location and site rediscovery: (a) a model of Laetoli site A generated using photogrammetry showing the five hominin footprints; (b) corresponding contour map of the site generated from a 3D surface scan with scale bar; (c) map of Laetoli localities 7 and 8, indicating the positions of bipedal trackways A, G and S; (d, e) topographical maps of the two best preserved A footprints, A2 (d) and A3 (e). Image credit: McNutt et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04187-7.

Study: At Least Two Hominin Species with Different Feet and Gaits Coexisted at Laetoli, Tanzania

Dec 2, 2021 by News Staff

Bipedal trackways discovered in 1978 at Laetoli site G, Tanzania, and dated to 3.66 million years ago are widely accepted as the oldest unequivocal evidence...

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

Australopithecus sediba Comfortably Walked on Two Legs, But Could Climb Like Ape

Nov 24, 2021 by News Staff

Paleoanthropologists have discovered and examined the fossil lumbar vertebrae of Australopithecus sediba, a small hominin that lived about 2 million years...

A reconstruction of Homo naledi’s head by paleoartist John Gurche, who spent some 700 hours recreating the head from bone scans. The find was announced by the University of the Witwatersrand, the National Geographic Society and the South African National Research Foundation and published in the journal eLife. Image credit: John Gurche / Mark Thiessen / National Geographic.

Paleoanthropologists Find Fossil Remains of Immature Homo naledi

Nov 5, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of paleoanthropologists has discovered a partial skull and teeth from an immature individual of Homo naledi, a recently-discovered...

Homo bodoensis had a pan-African distribution with the peripheral range extending into the eastern Mediterranean (Southeast Europe and the Levant) from which it could have contributed to the repopulation of European (and possibly Central and East Asian) demographic sinks after the glaciations. Image credit: Ettore Mazza.

Meet Homo bodoensis, New Species of Human Ancestor

Oct 29, 2021 by News Staff

Homo bodoensis lived in Africa during the early Middle Pleistocene, around 500,000 years ago, and was the direct ancestor of the Homo sapiens lineage;...

DeSilva et al. suggest that patterns of human brain evolution were influenced by collective intelligence, a convergent characteristic of diverse group-living animals. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.

Human Brains Decreased in Size 3,000 Years Ago, New Study Says

Oct 25, 2021 by News Staff

Human brain size nearly quadrupled in 6 million years since Homo last shared a common ancestor with chimpanzees, but human brains are thought to have decreased...

Cassowaries use their casque much in the same way as some other birds use their beaks for heat exchange. Image credit: Lolame.

Prehistoric New Guineans May Have Collected Cassowary Eggs to Hatch and Rear Chicks

Sep 28, 2021 by News Staff

As early as 18,000 years ago, early foragers in the montane rainforests of New Guinea preferentially collected eggs of cassowaries (Casuarius sp.) in late...

The ancient human footprints found at White Sands National Park in New Mexico, the United States. Image credit: Bennett et al., doi: 10.1126/science.abg7586.

23,000-Year-Old Human Footprints Discovered in New Mexico

Sep 24, 2021 by News Staff

In a study of exposed outcrops of Lake Otero in New Mexico, the United States, archaeologists have discovered numerous human footprints dating to about...

Japanese samurai in armor, print by Kusakabe Kimbei, 1870s. Image credit: Getty’s Open Content Program.

Ancient DNA Reveals Tripartite Origins of Japanese People

Sep 21, 2021 by News Staff

The Japanese archipelago, which has been occupied by humans for at least 38,000 years, underwent rapid transformations in the past 3,000 years, first from...

The reconstructed face of Krijn. Image credit: Servaas Neijens, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden / Adrie and Alfons Kennis, Kennis & Kennis Reconstructions.

Dutch Neanderthal’s Face Revealed

Sep 20, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Adrie and Alfons Kennis, two paleo-artists from the Kennis & Kennis Reconstructions, have used facial approximation techniques and the latest findings...

Parietal art panel at Quesang, Tibet. Image credit: Zhang et al., doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2021.09.001.

Middle-Pleistocene Hominin Hand and Foot Impressions Found in Tibet

Sep 15, 2021 by News Staff

A series of previously unreported hand and foot impressions from the Tibetan Plateau dates to between 169,000 and 226,000 years ago (middle Pleistocene...

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

New Study Examines Chewing Biomechanics of Homo floresiensis

Aug 25, 2021 by News Staff

The feeding biomechanics of Homo floresiensis, a small-bodied hominin lived until about 50,000 years ago on Flores, Indonesia, closely resembled the patterns...

Philippine Ayta Magbukon People Have Highest Amount of Denisovan DNA in the World

Aug 12, 2021 by News Staff

New research led by Uppsala University scientists suggests that there were multiple archaic human species that inhabited the Philippines prior to the arrival...