Paleoanthropology News

Depiction of the Jarijari (Nyeri Nyeri) people near Merbein engaged in recreational activities, including a type of Aboriginal football, by William Blandowski & Gustav Mützel, 1857.

Hepatitis B DNA Helps Trace History and Movement of First Australians

Mar 21, 2019 by News Staff

It’s widely accepted that continental Sahul, the combined landmass of Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania, was settled very early in human history. But...

Paleolithic edge-to-edge bite (top) and a modern overbite/overjet bite (bottom) and how ‘f’ sounds are produced in a biomechanical model. Image credit: Timea Bodogan / Scott Moisik.

Post-Neolithic Diet-Induced Dental Changes Led to Introduction of ‘F’ and ‘V’ Sounds

Mar 18, 2019 by News Staff

A class of speech sounds that is now present in nearly half of the world’s languages — labiodentals, produced by positioning the lower lip against...

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

Neanderthals Had Fully Upright Posture: Study

Feb 27, 2019 by News Staff

19th and early 20th century postural reconstructions of Neanderthals, and particularly the extensive one of the partial skeleton of an elderly male Neanderthal...

A group of Neanderthals in a cave. Image credit: Tyler B. Tretsven.

Denisovans and Neanderthals Lived in Denisova Cave for Thousands of Years

Jan 31, 2019 by News Staff

Two groups of archaic humans — Neanderthals and their enigmatic cousins, Denisovans — occupied Denisova Cave in the Altai region of Siberia...

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

Neanderthals Produced Wooden Spears Advanced Enough to Kill at Distance

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...

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...

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...

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 ‘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...

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...