Paleoanthropology News

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

Archaic hominins. Image credit: Ninara / CC BY 2.0.
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 to 60,000 years older than current evidence suggests, according to a new modeling study. Archaic hominins. Image credit: Ninara / CC BY 2.0. Early stone tool technologies, such as the Oldowan and Acheulean, allowed early human ancestors to access new food types. They also increased the ease of producing...

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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...

A reconstruction of a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

48,000-Year-Old Fossils Hint at Neanderthal-Human Interbreeding

Feb 1, 2021 by News Staff

Several hominin teeth found the Paleolithic site of La Cotte de St Brelade in Jersey may belong to Neanderthal-Homo sapiens hybrids, according to new research...

The first people to reach and disperse across the Americas did so in tandem with their dogs. Image credit: Ettore Mazza.

First People to Settle in Americas were Accompanied by Their Dogs

Jan 27, 2021 by News Staff

A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that dogs were domesticated in Siberia by 23,000 years ago, possibly...

2-Million-Year-Old Stone Tools Unearthed in Tanzania

Jan 11, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists and paleoanthropologists has discovered a large collection of 2-million-year-old stone tools, fossilized bones...

Illustration of one of the early settlers in the Caribbean. Image credit: Tom Björklund.

Ancient DNA Reveals Genetic History of Caribbean World

Dec 27, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study of the genetic history of the pre-contact Caribbean, researchers analyzed genome-wide DNA data from 174 ancient individuals who lived in...

Tahitian warrior dugouts from ‘Le Costume Ancien et Moderne’ by Giulio Ferrario, Milan, between 1816 and 1827.

First Mariana Islanders Came from Philippines, New Study Shows

Dec 23, 2020 by News Staff

In new research, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Australian National University and the University of Guam analyzed...

An ancient Japanese wooden sailing vessel. Image credit: Pratyeka / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Paleolithic Humans Deliberately Crossed Ocean to Japanese Islands 35,000 Years Ago: Study

Dec 7, 2020 by News Staff

Paleolithic people deliberately crossed the challenging ocean to migrate to the Ryukyu Islands of southwestern Japan, even though the islands would not...

The Venus of Willendorf, an 11.1-cm- (4.4-inch) tall Venus figurine estimated to have been made 30,000 BCE, in Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria. Image credit: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Upper Paleolithic Figurines Showing Women with Obesity May Be Linked to Climate Change

Dec 2, 2020 by News Staff

Obesity is rare in hunter-gatherer cultures. Nevertheless, dozens of handheld ‘Venus’ figurines — the oldest art sculptures of humans known and...

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

Neanderthals Were as Good at Tolerating Smoke-Related Toxins as Early Modern Humans: Study

Nov 30, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genetic study conducted by researchers from Leiden University and Wageningen University thoroughly debunks previous claims that a genetic mutation...

Reconstruction of a Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

Neanderthal Thumbs were Better Adapted to Holding Tools with Handles: Study

Nov 26, 2020 by News Staff

Neanderthals may have found precision grips (where objects are held between the tip of the finger and thumb) more challenging than power squeeze grips...

Paranthropus boisei. Image credit: © Roman Yevseyev.

2-Million-Year-Old Skull of Paranthropus robustus Suggests Climate Change Drove Rapid Changes

Nov 10, 2020 by News Staff

Paranthropus robustus is a small-brained extinct hominin that lived between 2 million and 1.2 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Discovered...

Neanderthal family. Image credit: Field Museum.

New Research Sheds Light on Early Life of Neanderthals

Nov 3, 2020 by News Staff

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals that the modern human nursing strategy, with onset of weaning at 5...

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

Denisovan Mitochondrial DNA Found in Tibetan Cave

Nov 2, 2020 by News Staff

In 1980, the 160,000-year-old fossilized partial jawbone of a Denisovan — the so-called Xiahe mandible — was found in Baishiya Karst Cave,...

Reconstruction of Paranthropus boisei (Nachosan / CC BY-SA 3.0)

Building Blocks of Language Evolved at least 40 Million Years before Language Itself, Study Shows

Oct 22, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study, published this week in the journal Science Advances, apes and monkeys were able to track relationships between sounds the same way as humans,...

A Homo heidelbergensis, a Neanderthal and a Cro-Magnon. Image credit: SINC / José Antonio Peñas.

Climate Change Drove Early Human Species Extinct, Says New Study

Oct 19, 2020 by News Staff

At least six different species of the genus Homo — H. habilis, H. ergaster, H. erectus, H. heidelbergensis, H. neanderthalensis, and H. sapiens —...

Reconstruction of a Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

Neanderthals’ Deep and Short Ribcage was Already Present at Birth

Oct 8, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of researchers has virtually reconstructed the ribcages of four Neanderthal individuals from birth to around 3 years old and found...

Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

Scientists Sequence Y Chromosome DNA of Denisovans and Neanderthals

Sep 25, 2020 by News Staff

The genomes of our closest relatives, Neanderthals and Denisovans, have been sequenced and compared with that of modern humans. However, most archaic individuals...

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