Paleoanthropology News

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...

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

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...

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

Homo erectus Were Technologically Conservative, Used Least-Effort Strategies, Researchers Say

Aug 13, 2018 by News Staff

Archaeological excavations at the Acheulean site of Saffaqah near Dawadmi in central Saudi Arabia have found that Homo erectus, an extinct hominid species...

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

Flores Pygmies Show No Genetic Link to Mysterious Homo floresiensis

Aug 3, 2018 by News Staff

Modern pygmies living in a village near the Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores, where fossils of the dwarfed human species Homo floresiensis...

Neanderthals Could Start Fires with Mineral Pyrite and Stone Tools

Jul 23, 2018 by News Staff

New research published in the journal Scientific Reports provides clear evidence that Neanderthals made fire by striking a piece of pyrite, the yellow...

Prehistoric Central European women’s manual labor was tougher than rowing in today’s boat crews.

Southeast Asians Derive Ancestry from Four Ancient Populations

Jul 13, 2018 by News Staff

Modern-day Southeast Asian populations are the result of mixing among four ancient populations, including multiple waves of genetic material from more...

The 2.12-million-year-old stone artifact at the Shangchen site, China. Image credit: Zhaoyu Zhu.

2.1-Million-Year-Old Stone Tools Unearthed in China

Jul 12, 2018 by News Staff

Archaeologists working in the southern Chinese Loess Plateau have unearthed stone tools crafted at least 2.1 million years ago by early humans. The discovery,...

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

Neanderthals Hunted Fallow Deer Using Close-Range Thrusting Spears: Study

Jul 6, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a study published June 25 in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, an international team of researchers reports lesions observed on two fallow...

Female Australopithecus afarensis with a child. Image credit: Concavenator / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Juvenile Australopithecus Climbed Trees, 3.32-Million-Year-Old Foot Fossil Shows

Jul 5, 2018 by News Staff

A nearly complete foot of Australopithecus afarensis, a hominid species that lived between 3.85 and 2.95 million years ago, from Ethiopia has several ape-like...

Forensic facial reconstruction of another Australopithecus species - A. afarensis. Image credit: Cicero Moraes / CC BY-SA 3.0.

4-Million-Year-Old Skull of Australopithecus Shows Similarities to That of Modern Humans

Jun 27, 2018 by News Staff

An Australopithecus partial cranium found in the Jacovec Cavern of the Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa, one of the richest early hominin fossil localities...

Lipson et al identify at least three major waves of human migration into Southeast Asia over the last 50,000 years.

Ancient DNA Study Reveals Prehistory of Southeast Asia

May 21, 2018 by News Staff

The first whole-genome analysis of ancient human DNA from Southeast Asia, defined as the area east of India and south of China, identifies at least three...

A reconstruction of Homo naledi’s head by paleoartist John Gurche, who spent some 700 hours recreating the head from bone scans. The find was announced by the University of the Witwatersrand, the National Geographic Society and the South African National Research Foundation and published in the journal eLife. Image credit: John Gurche / Mark Thiessen / National Geographic.

Homo naledi Had Small but Surprisingly Complex Brain

May 16, 2018 by News Staff

A species of extinct hominin called Homo naledi was discovered in 2013 in a remote cave chamber of the Rising Star cave system in South Africa. This species...

Selected artifacts from the Panga ya Saidi site: (a) Levallois core; (b) two backed lithic artifacts; (c) backed lithic artifact; (d-e) notched bones; (f) ocher crayon; (g) ostrich eggshell bead; (h) conus shell bead; (i) gastropod shell bead. Image credit: Shipton et al, doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-04057-3.

Kenyan Cave Provides New Insights into Later Stone Age

May 10, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has discovered more than 30,000 artifacts at Panga ya Saidi, a cave in the humid coastal forest of Kenya, which is...