Anthropology News

Ancient DNA Reveals Genetic History of Caribbean World

Illustration of one of the early settlers in the Caribbean. Image credit: Tom Björklund.
Dec 27, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study of the genetic history of the pre-contact Caribbean, researchers analyzed genome-wide DNA data from 174 ancient individuals who lived in the Bahamas, Haiti and the Dominican Republic (collectively, Hispaniola), Puerto Rico, Curaçao and Venezuela, as well as the data from 89 previously sequenced ancient individuals. Illustration of one of the early settlers in the Caribbean. Image credit: Tom Björklund. Prior to European colonization,...

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Tahitian warrior dugouts from ‘Le Costume Ancien et Moderne’ by Giulio Ferrario, Milan, between 1816 and 1827.

First Mariana Islanders Came from Philippines, New Study Shows

Dec 23, 2020 by News Staff

In new research, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Australian National University and the University of Guam analyzed...

An ancient Japanese wooden sailing vessel. Image credit: Pratyeka / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Paleolithic Humans Deliberately Crossed Ocean to Japanese Islands 35,000 Years Ago: Study

Dec 7, 2020 by News Staff

Paleolithic people deliberately crossed the challenging ocean to migrate to the Ryukyu Islands of southwestern Japan, even though the islands would not...

The Venus of Willendorf, an 11.1-cm- (4.4-inch) tall Venus figurine estimated to have been made 30,000 BCE, in Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria. Image credit: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Upper Paleolithic Figurines Showing Women with Obesity May Be Linked to Climate Change

Dec 2, 2020 by News Staff

Obesity is rare in hunter-gatherer cultures. Nevertheless, dozens of handheld ‘Venus’ figurines — the oldest art sculptures of humans known and...

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

Neanderthals Were as Good at Tolerating Smoke-Related Toxins as Early Modern Humans: Study

Nov 30, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genetic study conducted by researchers from Leiden University and Wageningen University thoroughly debunks previous claims that a genetic mutation...

Reconstruction of a Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

Neanderthal Thumbs were Better Adapted to Holding Tools with Handles: Study

Nov 26, 2020 by News Staff

Neanderthals may have found precision grips (where objects are held between the tip of the finger and thumb) more challenging than power squeeze grips...

Paranthropus boisei. Image credit: © Roman Yevseyev.

2-Million-Year-Old Skull of Paranthropus robustus Suggests Climate Change Drove Rapid Changes

Nov 10, 2020 by News Staff

Paranthropus robustus is a small-brained extinct hominin that lived between 2 million and 1.2 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Discovered...

Neanderthal family. Image credit: Field Museum.

New Research Sheds Light on Early Life of Neanderthals

Nov 3, 2020 by News Staff

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals that the modern human nursing strategy, with onset of weaning at 5...

A portrait of a juvenile female Denisovan based on a skeletal profile reconstructed from ancient DNA methylation maps. Image credit: Maayan Harel.

Denisovan Mitochondrial DNA Found in Tibetan Cave

Nov 2, 2020 by News Staff

In 1980, the 160,000-year-old fossilized partial jawbone of a Denisovan — the so-called Xiahe mandible — was found in Baishiya Karst Cave,...

Reconstruction of Paranthropus boisei (Nachosan / CC BY-SA 3.0)

Building Blocks of Language Evolved at least 40 Million Years before Language Itself, Study Shows

Oct 22, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study, published this week in the journal Science Advances, apes and monkeys were able to track relationships between sounds the same way as humans,...

A Homo heidelbergensis, a Neanderthal and a Cro-Magnon. Image credit: SINC / José Antonio Peñas.

Climate Change Drove Early Human Species Extinct, Says New Study

Oct 19, 2020 by News Staff

At least six different species of the genus Homo — H. habilis, H. ergaster, H. erectus, H. heidelbergensis, H. neanderthalensis, and H. sapiens —...

Reconstruction of a Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

Neanderthals’ Deep and Short Ribcage was Already Present at Birth

Oct 8, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of researchers has virtually reconstructed the ribcages of four Neanderthal individuals from birth to around 3 years old and found...

Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

Scientists Sequence Y Chromosome DNA of Denisovans and Neanderthals

Sep 25, 2020 by News Staff

The genomes of our closest relatives, Neanderthals and Denisovans, have been sequenced and compared with that of modern humans. However, most archaic individuals...

Human track and its digital elevation model. Image credit: Klint Janulis, University of Oxford.

120,000-Year-Old Human Footprints Found in Saudi Arabia

Sep 21, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists and paleoanthropologists has found ancient human and animal footprints on the surface of an ancient lakebed in...

The proximity of hot springs to early settlements have led Sistiaga et al to wonder if early humans used hot springs as a cooking resource long before fire. Image credit: Tom Björklund.

Archaic Humans May Have Boiled Their Food in Hot Springs

Sep 17, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has found evidence that hot springs existed in Olduvai Gorge — a paleoanthropological site in the Great Rift...

Reconstruction of a Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

Researchers Sequence Mitochondrial Genome of 80,000-Year-Old European Neanderthal

Sep 9, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of scientists has successfully extracted and sequenced the mitochondrial DNA from an 80,000-year-old adult Neanderthal tooth found...

An artistic rendering of the Horse Butchery Site and the Boxgrove people; it shows how the site was situated in front of towering chalk cliffs on the edge of an intertidal lagoon; the cliffs to the north provided all the flint used in tool making at the site and, within a few hours, the tide would have begun to cover the site in fine silt, preserving evidence of the day’s activity. Image credit: Lauren Gibson / Institute of Archaeology, University College London.

Homo heidelbergensis was Extremely Resourceful, New Research Shows

Sep 3, 2020 by News Staff

New research pieces together the activities and movements of a group of Homo heidelbergensis, a poorly understood species of archaic humans that lived...

A stone plaquette engraved with abstract designs from the Magdalenian site of Les Varines, Jersey, Channel Islands. Image credit: Bello et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236875.

15,000-Year-Old Abstract Art Found in Channel Islands

Sep 2, 2020 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists from the United Kingdom has uncovered 15,000-year-old stone plaquettes extensively engraved with abstract designs at the Magdalenian...

Various types of fluted points and preforms from Manayzah, Yemen: (1) double-fluted preform on a plano-convex elongated bifacial piece; (2) broken fluted preform on a bifacial elongated piece with symmetrical section; (3) base-fluted projectile point; (4 and 5) tip-fluted projectile points. Image credit: Crassard et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236314.

Neolithic People in Arabia Used Same Fluting Technology as Ancient Native Americans

Aug 11, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists has excavated and examined 8,000-year-old projectile points (spear- and arrowheads) at two sites in Yemen and Oman....

Denisovans Interbred with Mysterious Archaic Hominin: Study

Aug 7, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study published in the journal PLoS Genetics, researchers analyzed the genomes of two Neanderthals, a Denisovan, and two African humans; and found...

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