Anthropology News

Mar 28, 2017 by News Staff

Primate brain size is predicted by diet, indicates new research from New York University. The findings, just reported in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, are a serious blow to the ‘social brain hypothesis’ — the idea that social complexity is the primary driver of primate cognitive complexity, and that social pressures ultimately led to the evolution of the large human brain. The western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla)....

Mar 20, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study published in The Lancet, the Tsimane (pronounced chee-MAH-nay) — an indigenous people of lowland Bolivia — have the...

Mar 17, 2017 by News Staff

Humans inherit their nose shape from their parents, but ultimately, the shape of someone’s nose and that of their parents was formed by a long process...

Mar 9, 2017 by News Staff

An analysis of ancient DNA entrapped in Neanderthal dental calculus (calcified dental plaque) has revealed the complexity of Neanderthal behavior, including...

Mar 6, 2017 by News Staff

Two partial archaic human skulls unearthed in central China provide a new window into the biology and populations patterns of the immediate predecessors...

Jan 30, 2017 by News Staff

Researchers have uncovered a 38,000-year-old engraved image at Abri Blanchard, an Upper Paleolithic site of the Aurignacian culture — a finding that...

Dec 22, 2016 by News Staff

In the Arctic, the Inuits have adapted to cold and a seafood diet. After the first genomic analysis of Greenlandic Inuits, a region in the genome containing...

Dec 14, 2016 by News Staff

Europe’s earliest humans did not use fire, but had a balanced diet of meat and plants — all eaten raw, according to a team of researchers led by...

Nov 30, 2016 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal PLoS ONE, the relative strength of arms and legs of ‘Lucy’ — a 3.18-million-year-old specimen...

Nov 11, 2016 by News Staff

According to a team of researchers at the University of California, Davis, only a very small percentage of Neanderthal DNA is present in the genomes of...

Oct 21, 2016 by News Staff

A University of Oxford-led team of scientists has observed bearded capuchins (Sapajus libidinosus) in Brazil deliberately break stones, unintentionally...

Sep 23, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany has demonstrated that Neanderthals were responsible...

Sep 22, 2016 by News Staff

The first comprehensive genomic study of Indigenous Australians has revealed that they are indeed the direct descendants of Australia’s earliest settlers...

Aug 30, 2016 by News Staff

‘Lucy,’ perhaps the world’s most famous early human ancestor, probably died after falling from a tall tree, according to an international team of...

Aug 9, 2016 by News Staff

New research led by University of Victoria’s April Nowell reveals surprisingly sophisticated adaptations by early humans living 250,000 years ago in...

Jul 29, 2016 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists led by Dr. Patrick Randolph-Quinney from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University) in Johannesburg, South Africa,...

Jun 13, 2016 by News Staff

A new study contradicts the claim that LB1, the type specimen of Homo floresiensis, had Down syndrome, and further confirms its status as a valid and distinct...

Jun 9, 2016 by News Staff

New hominin fossils from the Indonesian island of Flores shed light on the origin of the mysterious ‘hobbit’ species, Homo floresiensis. Hominin remains...

May 12, 2016 by News Staff

Neanderthals showed signs of nutritional stress during periods of extreme cold, according to a new study published in the July 2016 issue of the Journal...

May 11, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of genetic researchers from the United States and Europe has found new evidence that there was an Ice Age refugium in southern Arabia. Spatial...