Anthropology
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Anthropology
Butchered bird bones put humans in Madagascar 10,500 years ago
Humans reached the island near Africa 6,000 years earlier than thought, raising questions about how its megafauna went extinct.
By Bruce Bower -
Genetics
German skeletons hint that medieval warrior groups recruited from afar
Graveyard finds may come from an ancient European warrior household with political pull.
By Bruce Bower -
Anthropology
A fossil mistaken for a bat may shake up lemurs’ evolutionary history
On Madagascar, a type of lemur called aye-ayes may have a singular evolutionary history.
By Bruce Bower -
Archaeology
The debate over people’s pathway into the Americas heats up
Defenders of an ice-free inland passage for early Americans make their case.
By Bruce Bower -
Genetics
Indonesia’s pygmies didn’t descend from hobbits, DNA analysis suggests
Short people living on the Indonesian island of Flores don’t appear to have DNA from controversial, small-bodied Stone Age hominids called hobbits.
By Bruce Bower -
Anthropology
Cremated remains reveal hints of who is buried at Stonehenge
Ancient stone monument held burials of people from more than 200 kilometers away, a new study suggests.
By Bruce Bower -
Anthropology
Conflict reigns over the history and origins of money
Thousands of years ago, money took different forms as a means of debt payment, archaeologists and anthropologists say.
By Bruce Bower -
Anthropology
How an ancient stone money system works like cryptocurrency
Money has ancient and mysterious pedigrees that go way beyond coins.
By Bruce Bower -
Earth
You’re living in a new geologic age. It’s called the Meghalayan
The newly defined Meghalayan Age began at the same time as a global, climate-driven event that led to human upheavals.
By Beth Geiger -
Genetics
North America’s earliest dogs came from Siberia
North America’s first dogs have few descendants alive today, a study of ancient DNA suggests.
By Bruce Bower -
Anthropology
Foot fossil pegs hominid kids as upright walkers 3.3 million years ago
A foot from an ancient hominid child suggests that Lucy’s species, Australopithecus afarensis, walked early in life.
By Bruce Bower -
Archaeology
Mongolians practiced horse dentistry as early as 3,200 years ago
Horse dentistry got an early start among Bronze Age Mongolian herders.
By Bruce Bower