Paleoanthropology News

36,500-Year-Old Human Genomes from Crimea Shed New Light on First Europeans

The occasional use of stone tools as ‘strike-a-lights’ was a technocultural feature shared among Neanderthals in France.
Oct 23, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Populations genetically related to present-day Europeans first appeared in Europe at some point after 38,000-40,000 years ago, following a cold period of severe climatic disruption. These new migrants would eventually replace the pre-existing modern human ancestries in Europe, but initial interactions between these groups are unclear due to the lack of genomic evidence from the earliest periods of the migration. In a new study, scientists sequenced...

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Comparisons of Neanderthal genomes to anatomically modern human (AMH) genomes show a history of Neanderthal-to-AMH introgression stemming from interbreeding after the migration of AMHs from Africa to Eurasia. All non-sub-Saharan African AMHs have genomic regions genetically similar to Neanderthals that descend from this introgression. Regions of the genome with Neanderthal similarities have also been identified in sub-Saharan African populations, but their origins have been unclear. To better understand how these regions are distributed across sub-Saharan Africa, the source of their origin, and what their distribution within the genome tells us about early AMH and Neanderthal evolution, Harris et al. analyzed a dataset of high-coverage, whole-genome sequences from 180 individuals from 12 diverse sub-Saharan African populations. Image credit: Holger Neumann / Neanderthal Museum.

Neanderthals Interbred with Now-Extinct Lineage of Early Modern Humans Over 250,000 Years Ago

Oct 20, 2023 by News Staff

Approximately 6% of the Altai Neanderthal genome was inherited from an ancient lineage of anatomically modern Homo sapiens that migrated from Africa to...

Reconstruction of Pierolapithecus catalaunicus (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont)

Scientists Reconstruct Skull of Pierolapithecus catalaunicus

Oct 17, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Pierolapithecus catalaunicus is an extinct species of great ape that lived in what is now Europe about 12 million years ago. A remarkably complete, although...

Frontal view of the portrait of Homo heidelbergensis from Petralona, Greece, with hair and skin pigmentation. Image credit: Aidonis et al., doi: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.104206.

Anthropologists Reconstruct Face of Homo heidelbergensis

Oct 13, 2023 by Sergio Prostak

Anthropologists in Greece have used facial reconstruction techniques to show how Homo heidelbergensis, a poorly understood relative of Neanderthals that...

Neanderthals butchering the freshly killed cave lion from Siegsdorf, Germany. Image credit: Julio Lacerda / NLD.

Neanderthals Were Hunting Cave Lions 48,000 Years Ago

Oct 12, 2023 by News Staff

During the Upper Paleolithic, lions become an important theme in Paleolithic art and are more frequent in anthropogenic faunal assemblages. However, the...

The ancient human footprints found at White Sands National Park in New Mexico, the United States. Image credit: Bennett et al., doi: 10.1126/science.abg7586.

New Radiocarbon Dating Confirms Age of 23,000-Year-Old Human Footprints in New Mexico

Oct 6, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Traditionally, paleoanthropologists believed that humans arrived in North America around 16,000 to 13,000 years ago. Recently, however, evidence has accumulated...

Upper Paleolithic drawing of the partial outline of a horse that uses the natural edge of the wall of La Pasiega Cave to represent the back and head of the horse. Image credit: Izzy Wisher / Gobierno de Cantabria.

Pareidolia May Have Stimulated Paleolithic Humans to Make Cave Art

Sep 25, 2023 by News Staff

Durham University archaeologist Izzy Wisher and colleagues investigated whether pareidolia — a psychological phenomenon where people see meaningful...

The 476,000-year-old structural unit formed by two overlapping logs. Image credit: Barham et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06557-9.

476,000-Year-Old Wooden Structure Unearthed in Zambia

Sep 20, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists have found an ancient wooden structure at the archaeological site of Kalambo Falls in Zambia. This structure — dated to about 476,000...

Stone Age depictions of human footprints and animal tracks in Doro! nawas mountains, Namibia. Image credit: Andreas Pastoors.

Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers Carved Detailed Human Footprints and Animal Tracks in Namibia

Sep 20, 2023 by News Staff

Namibia is rich in hunter-gatherer rock art from the Later Stone Age. This is a tradition of which well-executed engravings of animal tracks in large numbers...

A shod-hominin track in the Garden Route National Park, South Africa. Image credit: Charles Helm.

Middle Paleolithic Tracks Offer Oldest Evidence Yet of Human Footwear

Sep 15, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

New evidence from three tracksites on South Africa’s Cape coast suggests that early humans may have worn footwear while traversing dune surfaces during...

Sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys). Image credit: Luke Fannin, Dartmouth College.

‘Downclimbing’ from Trees Played Role in Early-Human Evolution

Sep 7, 2023 by News Staff

Early humans and apes likely evolved free-moving shoulders and flexible elbows to slow their descent from trees as gravity pulled on their heavier bodies,...

Hu et al. detected a reduction in the population size of our ancestors from about 100,000 to about 1,000 individuals, which persisted for about 100,000 years. Image credit: Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Early Human Ancestors Went Through Severe Population Bottleneck 850,000 Years Ago: Study

Sep 1, 2023 by News Staff

Today, there are more than 8 billion human beings on the planet. Our species dominate Earth’s landscapes, and our activities are driving large numbers...

Graecopithecus freybergi lived 7.2 million years ago in the dust-laden savannah of the Athens Basin. This view from Graecopithecus freybergi’ place of discovery, Pyrgos Vassilissis, to the southeast over the plain of Athens and under a reddish cloud of Sahara dust; in the background: Mount Hymettos and Mount Lykabettos. Image credit: Velizar Simeonovski.

8.7-Million-Year-Old Fossil Suggests Ancestors of Humans and African Apes Evolved in Europe

Aug 24, 2023 by News Staff

The fossilized remains of the Miocene-period ape species Anadoluvius turkae have been unearthed at the paleotological site of Çorakyerler in central Anatolia,...

Archaic human peptides display in vitro and in vivo antimicrobial activities with low host toxicity. Image credit: Ella Marushchenko.

Scientists ‘Resurrect’ Extinct Antimicrobial Peptides of Neanderthals and Denisovans

Aug 16, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Molecular de-extinction could offer avenues for drug discovery by reintroducing bioactive molecules that are no longer encoded by living organisms. Archaic...

Ruan et al. demonstrate how glacial cycle variability synchronized hominin habitat overlap, Denisovan-Neanderthal interbreeding, and early human gene flow. Image credit: Axel Timmermann.

Climate Shifts Orchestrated Interbreeding between Neanderthals and Denisovans, New Study Says

Aug 15, 2023 by News Staff

Looking at habitat overlap for Neanderthals and Denisovans, Pusan National University researcher Jiaoyang Ruan and colleagues found patterns of interbreeding...

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

Extreme Glacial Cooling Caused Extinction of Early Pleistocene Hominins in Europe, Study Says

Aug 10, 2023 by News Staff

New paleoclimate evidence shows that around 1.1 million years ago, the southern European climate cooled significantly and caused an extinction of archaic...

The 300,000-year-old double-pointed wooden stick at the site of Schöningen in Germany. Image credit: Peter Pfarr.

Middle Pleistocene Humans Possessed Sophisticated Woodworking Skills, Study Reveals

Jul 20, 2023 by News Staff

An analysis of a 300,000-year-old double-pointed wooden stick from the Middle Pleistocene site of Schöningen, Germany, shows it was scraped, seasoned...

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

New Research Shatters the Myth of Man the Hunter

Jun 29, 2023 by News Staff

The sexual division of labor among human foraging populations has typically been recognized as involving males as hunters and females as gatherers. Recent...

A group of Australopithecus afarensis. Image credit: Matheus Vieeira.

Hominins Butchered One Another 1.45 Million Years Ago: Study

Jun 27, 2023 by News Staff

Paleoanthropologists have found multiple cut marks on a 1.45-million-year-old (Early Pleistocene) hominin fossil found in the Koobi Fora Formation in the...

The 57,000-year-old Neanderthal engravings discovered in La Roche-Cotard cave, France: the ‘circular panel’ (left) and the ‘wavy panel’ (right). Image credit: Jean-Claude Marquet / CC-BY 4.0.

57,000-Year-Old Neanderthal Engravings Discovered in France

Jun 21, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Non-figurative markings on the walls of La Roche-Cotard cave in France are the oldest known engravings made by our sister species. The 57,000-year-old...

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