Anthropology News

Middle-Pleistocene Hominin Hand and Foot Impressions Found in Tibet

Parietal art panel at Quesang, Tibet. Image credit: Zhang et al., doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2021.09.001.
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 period) and may be the oldest work of art. Parietal art panel at Quesang, Tibet. Image credit: Zhang et al., doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2021.09.001. “The question is: What does this mean? How do we interpret these prints? They’re clearly not accidentally placed,” said co-author Dr. Thomas Urban, a researcher...

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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...

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

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...

Condemi et al. analyzed the blood types of Neanderthals and Denisovans by looking at their DNA. Image credit: CNRS.

Researchers Decipher Blood Groups of Neanderthals and Denisovans

Jul 30, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

An analysis of the high-quality nuclear genomes previously published from three Neanderthals and one Denisovan shows that these extinct hominins were polymorphic...

The 65,000-year-old leaf point from Hohle Fels Cave, Germany. Image credit: University of Tübingen.

Neanderthals Hunted with Leaf-Shaped Spears, Archaeologists Say

Jul 28, 2021 by News Staff

Archaeologists say they have found a 65,000-year-old leaf point in a cave in the Swabian Jura, Germany. The 65,000-year-old leaf point from Hohle Fels...

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

New Research Sheds Light on Foodways and Plant Processing at Neolithic Çatalhöyük

Jul 19, 2021 by News Staff

Archaeologists have analyzed a rich microbotanical assemblage from Çatalhöyük, a renowned archaeological site in central Anatolia, Turkey, best known...

Rapanui people. Image credit: © Santiago Caruso.

Pre-Contact Easter Island Society Didn’t Experience Ecologically-Induced Collapse, Study Suggests

Jul 14, 2021 by News Staff

Easter Island (Rapa Nui in the native language), a small volcanic island in southeastern Polynesia, has long been the focus of debate regarding the impact...

A reconstruction of Homo longi in his habitat. Image credit: Chuang Zhao.

146,000-Year-Old Archaic Human Cranium Represents New Species: Homo longi

Jun 28, 2021 by News Staff

Homo longi is phylogenetically closer to Homo sapiens than to Neanderthals or other archaic humans, according to new research described in The Innovation. A...

The fossilized remains of the Nesher Ramla hominin. Image credit: Tel Aviv University.

Nesher Ramla Hominin: Previously Unknown Type of Homo Discovered

Jun 25, 2021 by News Staff

The Nesher Ramla hominins lived between 420,000 and 120,000 years ago in the Middle East and had a distinctive combination of Neanderthal (especially the...

Photograph of the experiment with stone lamps: (A) the experiment before being lit; (B) the experiment after functioning for 1 min; (C) the experiment after functioning for 43 min. Image credit: Medina-Alcaide et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250497.

Researchers Test Ancient Lighting Systems to See How Paleolithic Humans Illuminated Their Caves

Jun 17, 2021 by News Staff

Artificial lighting was a crucial physical resource for expanding complex social and economic behavior in groups of Paleolithic humans. Furthermore, the...

Coxcatlan Cave, a rock shelter located within the southern portion of the Tehuacan Valley in Mexico. Image credit: Andrew Somerville.

Humans Arrived in North America More Than 30,000 Years Ago, Study Suggests

Jun 2, 2021 by News Staff

Archaeologists have obtained radiocarbon dates for the faunal bones excavated from Coxcatlan Cave, a dry rock shelter located within the southern portion...

The last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans represents the starting point of human and chimpanzee evolution. Image credit: Christopher M. Smith.

Hominins Originated in Africa from Ape Ancestors Unlike Any Living Species, Study Suggests

May 7, 2021 by News Staff

Understanding the origins of the human lineage (hominins) requires reconstructing the morphology, behavior, and environment of the chimpanzee-human last...

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

New Fossils of Homo erectus Found in Kenya

Apr 13, 2021 by News Staff

Paleoanthropologists have uncovered two new specimens of Homo erectus at the East Turkana site in Kenya. They’ve also verified the age of a skull fragment...

Skulls of early Homo from Georgia with an ape-like brain (left) and from Indonesia with a human-like brain (right). Image credit: M. Ponce de León & C. Zollikofer, University of Zurich.

New Research Explores Origins of Structurally Modern Human Brain

Apr 9, 2021 by News Staff

Modern human brain structures emerged later than the first dispersal of the genus Homo from Africa, and were probably in place by 1.7 to 1.5 million years...

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

First European Homo sapiens Mixed with Neanderthals, DNA Study Shows

Apr 9, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Scientists have extracted and analyzed DNA from three individuals of anatomically modern humans who lived between 45,930 and 42,580 years ago in what is...

Non-utilitarian collected objects at Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter and in southern Africa. Abbreviations: A11 - Apollo 11, CoH - Cave of Hearths, HRS - Hollow Rock Shelter, KRM - Klasies River Main site, PP - Pinnacle Point sites, VR3 - Varsche Rivier 3, WC - Wonderwerk Cave. Scale bar - 5 cm. Image credit: Wilkins et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03419-0.

Innovative Humans Thrived in Water-Rich Kalahari 105,000 Years Ago

Apr 1, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists has found evidence of complex symbolic and technological behaviors at Ga-Mohana Hill in the Northern Cape, South...

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

Study: Oldowan and Acheulean Flaked Stone Technologies Older than Previously Thought

Mar 25, 2021 by News Staff

The Oldowan and the Acheulean — currently the two oldest, well-documented stone tool technologies known to archaeologists — are roughly 30,000...

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

Southeast Asians Carry DNA of ‘Mysterious Southern Denisovans’

Mar 23, 2021 by News Staff

The hominin fossil record of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) indicates that at least two super-archaic species, Homo luzonensis and Homo floresiensis, were...

Neanderthals consumed plants, too. Image credit: University of Utah via kued.org.

Study: Neanderthals Had Capacity to Produce Human-Like Speech

Mar 2, 2021 by News Staff

Neanderthals evolved the auditory capacities to support a vocal communication system as efficient as modern human speech, according to new research led...

Ardipithecus ramidus, a hominid that lived in Africa more then 4 million years ago. Illustration by Arturo Asensio, via Quo.es.

4.4-Million-Year-Old Ardipithecus Hand Reveals ‘Big Evolutionary Jump’

Feb 26, 2021 by News Staff

Paleoanthropologists from the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, and South Africa have examined the fossilized hand of Ardipithecus ramidus, a...

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