Anthropology News

Paleo-Indians hunting a glyptodont by Heinrich Harder, c. 1920.

Two Different Paleo-Indian Populations Coexisted in Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Mexico

Feb 7, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists and paleoanthropologists has uncovered the 9,900-year-old remains of a Paleo-Indian woman in the Chan Hol underwater...

Ahu Nau Nau, a cultural and religious site built by Rapa Nui society on Easter Island’s Anakena beach, was among 11 sites where previously gathered data were examined as part of the new study. The site is located on the north shore of the Easter Island. Image credit: Robert DiNapoli.

Study: Easter Island’s Monument-Building Society Did Not Collapse Prior to European Contact

Feb 6, 2020 by News Staff

Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, is famous for its numerous statues (moai) and the monumental platforms that supported them (ahu). A widely-held...

Reconstruction of a Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

Neanderthals Entered Southern Siberia on Two Separate Occasions, Study Says

Jan 28, 2020 by News Staff

Neanderthals were once widespread across Europe and western Asia. They also penetrated into the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia, but the geographical...

Archaic hominins. Image credit: Ninara / CC BY 2.0.

Homo erectus Reached Java around 1.3 Million Years Ago

Jan 14, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Homo erectus, a hominin species that originated in equatorial Africa or the Caucasus region of Eurasia, arrived on the island of Java in Indonesia around...

This is an artist's reconstruction of Homo erectus. Image credit: Yale University.

Last Population of Homo erectus Survived in Central Java until 108,000 Years Ago

Dec 20, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has pinpointed the first comprehensive age for the last known occurrence of the early hominin species Homo erectus. This...

Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

Were Neanderthals, Denisovans and Other Archaic Humans Victims of Sixth Mass Extinction?

Dec 1, 2019 by The Conversation

Nine human species walked the Earth 300,000 years ago. Now there is just one. A reconstruction of a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum. Neanderthals...

Neanderthals are commonly thought to have relied on dangerous close range hunting techniques, using non-projectile weapons like the thrusting spears depicted here; this hunting approach is thought to have brought them into violent contact with large mammals, resulting in high levels of injury especially to the head and neck when compared to modern humans; Beier et al found similar head injury levels in both Neanderthals and Upper Paleolithic humans, casting doubt on this hypothesis. Image credit: Gleiver Prieto.

Neanderthal Extinction Caused by Inbreeding and Smallness of Their Populations, Study Suggests

Nov 28, 2019 by News Staff

A long-standing enigma in paleoanthropology is the demise of Neanderthals about 40,000 years ago. There is general agreement that their disappearance coincides...

Music is universal: it exists in every society (both with and without words), varies more within than between societies, regularly supports certain types of behavior, and has acoustic features that are systematically related to the goals and responses of singers and listeners. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.

Human Songs From Around the World Share Universal Features, Study Says

Nov 25, 2019 by News Staff

Songs from cultures spanning the globe exhibit universal patterns, according to a new study published in the journal Science. Music is universal: it exists...

Forensic facial reconstruction of another Australopithecus species - A. afarensis. Image credit: Cicero Moraes / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Living Great Apes are Smarter than Australopithecines, New Research Suggests

Nov 18, 2019 by News Staff

New research challenges the long-held idea that, because the brain of human ancestors called australopithecines was larger than that of many modern great...

Neanderthals May Have Gone Extinct Because of Human Tropical Infections

Nov 8, 2019 by News Staff

The initial encounter between Neanderthals and anatomically modern Homo sapiens migrating out of Africa occurred more than 130,000 years ago in a region...

Danuvius guggenmosi, a great ape that lived some 12 million years ago (Miocene period) in what is now Germany. Image credit: Velizar Simeonovski.

Miocene-Period Great Ape Unearthed in Germany: Danuvius guggenmosi

Nov 7, 2019 by News Staff

A previously unknown species of great ape that was well adapted to both walking upright as well as using all four limbs while climbing has been identified...

The 39,000-year-old eagle phalange with cut marks from Foradada Cave, Spain: (A) dorsal, medial, plantar, and lateral views of the phalange (from left to right, respectively); (B) detail of the cut marks in the dorsal view and dotted-line squares with the area amplified in photos (C) and (D); (E) detailed photo of all the cut marks after cleaning and restoration. Image credit: Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo, IDEA.

Iberian Neanderthals Used Eagle Talons for Symbolic Purposes

Nov 4, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A cut-marked eagle phalange recovered from Foradada Cave in Spain suggests that Iberian Neanderthals used the birds’ talons as bead-like objects. The...

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

Fast Evolution Explains Diminutive Size of Homo floresiensis

Oct 29, 2019 by The Conversation

It’s not every day that scientists discover a new human species. But that’s just what happened back in 2004, when archaeologists uncovered some very...

Ancient humans. Image credit: sjs.org / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Origin of Anatomically Modern Humans Traced to Southern Africa

Oct 29, 2019 by News Staff

The earliest ancestors of anatomically modern Homo sapiens emerged in a region south of the Zambezi River in Botswana, Africa, according to a new analysis...

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

Neanderthals Knew How to Start Fire, New Research Shows

Oct 28, 2019 by News Staff

Middle Paleolithic hominins such as Neanderthals not only controlled fire, but also mastered the ability to generate it, according to new research led...

Adaptive Genetic Variants from Archaic Hominins Found in Melanesians

Oct 19, 2019 by News Staff

Modern individuals from the Pacific islands of Melanesia harbor adaptive copy number variants (CNVs) that they inherited from two groups of our evolutionary...

Cores from Phase D (48,000-34,000 years ago) and Phase C (13,000-12,000 years ago) of Fa-Hien Lena Cave, Sri Lanka: bipolar core (4, 5, 6), bipolar orthogonal core (1, 2, 7, 8), unidirectional abrupt core (3). Image credit: Wedage et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0222606.

45,000-Year-Old Tiny Stone Tools Found in Sri Lanka

Oct 4, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists has found a collection of microliths — small, retouched, often-backed stone tools — at the cave site...

Scientists Reconstruct Skeletal Anatomy of Denisovans

Sep 19, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Israel and Spain has produced reconstructions of Denisovans, an extinct sister group of Neanderthals, based on patterns of methylation...

The structure of the Eustachian tube in a Neanderthal man. Image credit: SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University.

Chronic Ear Infections Contributed to Neanderthal Extinction

Sep 19, 2019 by News Staff

Neanderthals may have been doomed to extinction because they had persistent, life-long ear infections due to the structure of their Eustachian tubes, a...