Anthropology

  1. Anthropology

    Fossil finds amplify Europe’s status as a hotbed of great ape evolution

    A kneecap and two teeth belonged to the smallest known great ape, a study contends. If so, it’s the first to coexist with another great ape in Europe.

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  2. Anthropology

    50 years ago, evidence showed that an extinct human ancestor walked upright

    Fossil finds have since pushed back the ability of hominids to walk on two legs by millions of years.

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  3. Anthropology

    Ancient primates’ unchipped teeth hint that they ate mostly fruit

    Of more than 400 teeth collected, just 21 were chipped, suggesting that early primate diets were soft on their choppers.

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  4. Anthropology

    Spanish horses joined Indigenous South Americans’ societies long before Europeans came to stay

    By the early 1600s, hunter-gatherers at the continent’s southern tip adopted horses left behind by colonial newcomers, new finds suggest.

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  5. Archaeology

    Ancient Maya power brokers lived in neighborhoods, not just palaces

    Lidar discoveries and recent excavations are forcing archaeologists to rethink ancient Maya political structures.

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  6. Archaeology

    A mysterious ancient grave with a sword and mirror belonged to a woman

    The items hint that she fought in or helped plan raids and defensive actions in what’s now southwestern England about 2,000 years ago, scientists speculate.

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  7. Psychology

    Why scientists are expanding the definition of loneliness

    Feeling detached from animals, places and routines can cause loneliness, researchers are learning, which may expand the list of interventions.

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  8. Anthropology

    Surprisingly long-lived wild female chimps go through menopause

    Chimpanzees in Uganda are the first known example of wild, nonhuman primates experiencing the hormonal changes, raising questions about how menopause evolved.

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  9. Archaeology

    Neandertals hunted cave lions at least 48,000 years ago

    A new study reports the first direct evidence of Neandertals slaying the big cats, and the earliest evidence of any hominids killing a large predator.

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  10. Archaeology

    Human footprints in New Mexico really may be surprisingly ancient, new dating shows

    Two dating methods find that human tracks in White Sands National Park in New Mexico are roughly 22,000 years old, aligning with a previous estimate.

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  11. Anthropology

    Interlocking logs may be evidence of the oldest known wooden structure

    Roughly 480,000-year-old wooden find from Zambia suggests early hominids were more skilled at structuring their environments than scientists realized.

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  12. Anthropology

    Extreme cold may have nearly wiped out human ancestors 900,000 years ago

    Ancestral populations had rebounded by about 800,000 years ago, heralding the evolution of people today, a contested DNA analysis suggests.

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