Anthropology News

Neanderthals Produced Wooden Spears Advanced Enough to Kill at Distance

Neanderthals consumed plants, too. Image credit: University of Utah via kued.org.
Jan 28, 2019 by News Staff

In a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, a team of researchers from University College London and Nordic Sport (UK) Limited examined the performance of replicas of the 300,000-year-old Schöningen hand-thrown spears to identify whether javelin throwers could use them to hit a target at distance. Neanderthals. Image credit: University of Utah via kued.org. “The emergence of weaponry is a critical but poorly established threshold in...

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Easter Island, known as Rapa Nui to its earliest inhabitants, is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. Image credit: Yerson Retamal.

Easter Islanders Built Their Monuments Close to Coastal Freshwater Sources, Researchers Say

Jan 11, 2019 by News Staff

Ancient inhabitants of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) built their famous statues (moai) and megalithic platforms (ahu) that supported them near the island’s...

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

Little Foot Fossil Sheds New Light on Hominin Brain Evolution

Dec 21, 2018 by News Staff

The first detailed comparative description of the external neuroanatomy of the 3.67-million-year-old Australopithecus prometheus fossil known as the Little...

A stone tool from Ain Boucherit, Algeria. Image credit: Sahnouni et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aau0008.

2.4-Million-Year-Old Stone Tools, Cutmarked Bones Found in Algeria

Nov 30, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists and paleoanthropologists has uncovered 2.4-million-year-old stone artifacts and cutmarked bones at the archaeological...

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.

Neanderthals, Upper Paleolithic Humans Had Similarly Harsh Lives: Study

Nov 15, 2018 by News Staff

Neanderthals had just as many head trauma injuries as Upper Paleolithic humans, according to new research from the University of Tübingen, Germany. Neanderthals...

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

250,000-Year-Old Neanderthal Teeth Reveal Evidence of Lead Poisoning

Nov 8, 2018 by News Staff

Two teeth from Neanderthal children who lived 250,000 years ago in what is today France contain evidence of repeated exposure to high levels of lead, a...

Reconstruction of a Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

Researchers Create 3D Model of Neanderthal Rib Cage

Oct 31, 2018 by News Staff

Our close evolutionary cousins may have had a subtle, but somewhat different breathing mechanism compared to anatomically modern humans, according to a...

Hominins by Amedee Forestier, 1922.

500,000-Year-Old Stone Tools Suggest Hominins Arrived in Arabia Earlier Than Thought

Oct 30, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists and paleoanthropologists has found fossil faunal remains and associated stone tools at the middle Pleistocene (300,000-500,000...

Neanderthals in a cave. Image credit: Tyler B. Tretsven.

Neanderthals Cared for the Ill and Injured, Assisted Childbirth

Oct 22, 2018 by News Staff

In a paper published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, University of York’s Dr. Penny Spikins and co-authors argue that Neanderthals embraced...

The population of Easter Island in pre-historic time is believed to have numbered in the thousands although typical perennial sources of drinking water are nearly absent from the island. Image credit: Thomason Jiang.

Ancient Easter Islanders Collected Brackish Water from Ocean’s Edge, Researchers Claim

Oct 11, 2018 by News Staff

Ancient inhabitants of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) survived periods of drought due to their utilization of brackish groundwater discharge that surfaces buoyantly...

By combining separate measures of recall and recognition, Jenkins et al show that people know about 5,000 faces on average and that individual differences are large. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.

People Know 5,000 Faces on Average, Study Says

Oct 11, 2018 by News Staff

Over our species history, humans have typically lived in small groups of under a hundred individuals. But a new study, published in the journal Royal Society...

Interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans gave us genetic tools to combat viral infections. Image credit: Claire Scully.

Study: Humans Inherited Viral Defenses from Neanderthals

Oct 10, 2018 by News Staff

Neanderthal DNA introgressed in modern humans helped them adapt against RNA viruses, according to new research published in the journal Cell. Interbreeding...

Pleistocene backed artifact dated to 43,000 years ago showing evidence of use on its working edge: ventral and dorsal surfaces. Image credit: McDonald et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0202511.

Aboriginal People Lived in Australian Deserts 43,000 Years Ago, New Research Finds

Oct 2, 2018 by News Staff

New evidence from Karnatukul (Serpents Glen), a rock shelter site in the Australian Western Desert, indicates that Aboriginal people lived in this interior...

The Servants Drive a Herd of Yahoos into the Field by Louis John Rhead. Image credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Yahoo in Gulliver’s Travels Represent 18th Century Description of Sasquatch, Researcher Says

Sep 24, 2018 by News Staff

Australian National University researcher Debbie Argue may have solved one of English literature’s most enduring mysteries: Jonathan Swift’s inspiration...

The ‘Early Acheulean’ and ‘Late Acheulean’ handaxes produced by knappers. Image credit: A.J.M. Key & C.J. Dunmore, doi: 10.7717/peerj.5399.

500,000-Year-Old Artifacts Reveal Modern Human-Like Gripping Capabilities

Sep 4, 2018 by News Staff

New research published in the journal PeerJ demonstrates that a technique used to produce ‘Late Acheulean’ handaxes is likely to have needed a modern...

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

Study: Climate Change Contributed to Neanderthal Demise

Aug 30, 2018 by News Staff

The transition from Neanderthals to modern humans in Europe occurred during a period of recurring cold climate cycles. In a new study, a team of researchers...

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

‘Denisova 11’ Had Neanderthal Mother and Denisovan Father

Aug 23, 2018 by News Staff

Neanderthals and Denisovans are extinct groups of hominins that separated from each other more than 390,000 years ago. These two groups inhabited Eurasia...

Dr. Dunn and Dr. Smaers report a positive correlation between vocal repertoire size and the relative size of cortical association areas in non-human primates. Image credit: Herbert Aust.

Primate Study Offers Important Insight into Evolution of Human Speech

Aug 14, 2018 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience has found a link between vocal repertoire and relative size of key regions of the brain. Dr....

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

Homo erectus Were Technologically Conservative, Used Least-Effort Strategies, Researchers Say

Aug 13, 2018 by News Staff

Archaeological excavations at the Acheulean site of Saffaqah near Dawadmi in central Saudi Arabia have found that Homo erectus, an extinct hominid species...

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

Flores Pygmies Show No Genetic Link to Mysterious Homo floresiensis

Aug 3, 2018 by News Staff

Modern pygmies living in a village near the Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores, where fossils of the dwarfed human species Homo floresiensis...

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