Paleoanthropology News

New Study Challenges Long-Held Idea that Our Ancestors Simply Got Bigger Over Time

A Homo heidelbergensis, a Neanderthal and a Cro-Magnon. Image credit: SINC / José Antonio Peñas.
Jun 22, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

For decades, paleoanthropologists assumed that hominins — the lineage leading to modern humans — gradually grew larger over millions of years. New research led by the University of Reading complicates that picture considerably: the biggest jump in body size happened around 2 to 2.5 million years ago, with the appearance of Homo rudolfensis or Homo erectus/ergaster; Homo floresiensis and Homo naledi stayed small, with the early hominin...

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Shaar et al. unveil the oldest evidence of human activity in Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa. Image credit: Michael Chazan.

Evidence of Fire Use by Early Humans May Date Back Nearly 1.8 Million Years

Jun 16, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Scientists have uncovered compelling new evidence that early human ancestors, likely Homo erectus, were deliberately bringing fire into Wonderwerk Cave...

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

Acheulean Toolmakers Chose Their Stone with Surprising Precision

Jun 8, 2026 by News Staff

Geochemical analysis of 780,000-year-old stone tools from Israel suggests Acheulean (or Acheulian) hominins repeatedly sought specific basalt sources,...

Reconstruction of Homo erectus.

Upright Walking and Larger Brains May Explain Why 90% of Humans Favor Their Right Hand

May 22, 2026 by News Staff

New research from the University of Oxford and the University of Reading suggests bipedalism and expanding brain size helped drive the overwhelming dominance...

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

Homo erectus May Have Co-Existed with Denisovans in East Asia

May 15, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

Scientists have extracted and analyzed proteins from the tooth enamel of six Homo erectus individuals who lived in China roughly 400,000 years ago, offering...

The arrival of Homo erectus in Southeast Asia 1.8 million years ago triggered the evolution of major human malaria vectors.

Study: Malaria Shaped Human Settlement Patterns for Over 74,000 Years

Apr 22, 2026 by News Staff

New research led by Max-Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and University of Cambridge scientists suggests malaria did more than sicken ancient populations,...

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

Scientists Reconstruct One of Oldest Known Neanderthal Communities

Apr 21, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from eight fossils found in Stajnia Cave in Poland reveals a tight-knit group of Neanderthals who lived about 100,000 years ago,...

The European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis) next to the foot of the straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus). Image credit: Nicole Viehofer / MONREPOS - LEIZA.

Neanderthals Hunted Pond Turtles, But Not for Dinner

Apr 8, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

New evidence from Germany suggests Neanderthals captured European pond turtles (Emys orbicularis) around 125,000 years ago, likely valuing their shells...

Large naturalistic style thylacine with sharp teeth from Injalak Hill, Northern Territory, Australia. Image credit: Craig Banggar.

Researchers Discover Tasmanian Tiger and Tasmanian Devil Paintings in Northern Australia

Mar 30, 2026 by News Staff

Both the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) and the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) are believed to have become extinct on the Australian...

Canadian Eskimo dogs. Illustration by John James Audubon and John Bachman (1845-1848).

Ancient DNA Study Rewrites Origins of Europe’s First Dogs

Mar 26, 2026 by News Staff

Scientists have extracted and analyzed DNA from 216 canid remains, including 181 from Paleolithic and Mesolithic Europe. The oldest data that they recovered...

The Acropolis at Athens by Leo von Klenze.

Democracy’s Roots Run Far Deeper than Ancient Greece, New Study Says

Mar 19, 2026 by News Staff

Examining 31 ancient societies across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, researchers found that democratic systems were more widespread than once believed...

A butterfly clay bead from the Final Natufian period in Eynan-Mallaha, the Upper Jordan Valley, colored red with ochre and marked with the fingerprints of the child (around 10 years old) who modeled it 12,000 years ago. Image credit: Laurent Davin.

Long Before Pottery, Children Shaped Clay to Tell Stories

Mar 19, 2026 by News Staff

A cache of 142 beads and pendants from five Natufian (15,000 to 11,650 years before the present) sites in Israel reveals that clay was first used not for...

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

Neanderthals May Have Used Birch Tar as Natural Antibiotic

Mar 18, 2026 by News Staff

New experiments show that tar made from birch bark — long known as a tool adhesive — can inhibit harmful bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus,...

Straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) were the largest land mammals of the European Pleistocene. Image credit: Hodari Nundu, CC-BY-4.0.

Neanderthals May Have Hunted Giant Elephants that Roamed across Prehistoric Europe

Mar 16, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Chemical clues preserved in the teeth of straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) from the 125,000-year-old site of Neumark-Nord in Germany suggest...

Graecopithecus freybergi lived 7.2 million years ago in the dust-laden savannah of the Athens Basin. This view from Graecopithecus freybergi’s 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.

Graecopithecus May Have Been Partially Bipedal, New Fossil Suggests

Mar 5, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

A 7.2-million-year-old thigh bone unearthed at the fossil site of Azmaka in southern Bulgaria displays a mosaic of features suggesting a unique combination...

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

Neolithic Europeans Had Surprisingly Complex Cuisine, Archaeologists Say

Mar 5, 2026 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists has examined a total of 85 pottery sherds with substantial amounts of foodcrusts from 13 archaeological sites across...

Reconstruction of the face of StW 573. Image credit: A. Beaudet.

Scientists Digitally Reconstruct Face of ‘Little Foot’

Mar 3, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Beyond their value for classification and evolutionary relationships, changes in the size and shape of the hominin face through time can reflect important...

Neanderthals. Image credit: Gemini AI.

Study: Ancient Mating Preferences Helped Shape Human Genome

Mar 2, 2026 by News Staff

Prehistoric humans and Neanderthals didn’t just interbreed, they did so with a consistent sex bias, as male Neanderthals and female modern humans mated...

The arrival of Homo erectus in Southeast Asia 1.8 million years ago triggered the evolution of major human malaria vectors.

Arrival of Homo erectus in Southeast Asia Changed Mosquito Menu, New Study Suggests

Feb 26, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

The ancestors of today’s malaria-spreading mosquitoes in the Anopheles leucosphyrus (Leucosphyrus) group may have shifted to feeding on humans around...

Plaquette with hybrid creature (so-called ‘Adorant’), ivory, from the Swabian Aurignacian. Image credit: Christian Bentz & Ewa Dutkiewicz, doi: 10.1073/pnas.2520385123.

Early Humans May Have Invented System of Symbols Long Before Writing

Feb 25, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

Early humans living in Europe some 40,000 years ago developed a conventional system of geometric signs — deliberate, repeatable markings that went...

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