Anthropology
- Animals
Pregnant bonobos get a little delivery help from their friends
As in humans, female bonobos become helpers for mothers giving birth, data from captive apes suggest.
- Anthropology
Ancient Chinese farmers sowed literal seeds of change in Southeast Asia
Two waves of ancient migration from China to Southeast Asia spread farming and languages.
- Anthropology
Butchered rhino bones place hominids in the Philippines 700,000 years ago
Stone tools and butchery marks point to an ancient hominid presence on islands in the Philippines.
- Anthropology
Anthropologists in Peru have unearthed the largest known child sacrifice
The largest known mass sacrifice of children occurred around 550 years ago in the Chimú empire in Peru.
- Anthropology
A hole in an ancient cow’s skull could have been surgery practice
Before performing skull operations on people, ancient surgeons may have rehearsed on cows.
- Genetics
Sweet potatoes might have arrived in Polynesia long before humans
Genetic analysis suggests that sweet potatoes were present in Polynesia over 100,000 years ago, and didn’t need help crossing the Pacific.
- Anthropology
Finger fossil puts people in Arabia at least 86,000 years ago
A desert discovery suggests that Arabia was an ancient human destination.
- Anthropology
Ardi walked the walk 4.4 million years ago
Ancient hominid evolved upright stance without sacrificing climbing ability.
- Anthropology
Modern chimp brains share similarities with ancient hominids
MRIs suggest certain brain folding patterns don’t mark ancient humanlike neural advances after all, raising questions about hominid brain evolution.
- Genetics
Atacama mummy’s deformities were unduly sensationalized
A malformed human mummy known as Ata has been sensationalized as alien. A DNA analysis helps overturn that misconception.
- Anthropology
Readers ponder children’s pretend play, planetary dust storms and more
Readers had questions about children’s fantasy play, lasers creating 3-D images and dust storms on Mars.
- Anthropology
Ancient climate shifts may have sparked human ingenuity and networking
Stone tools signal rise of social networking by 320,000 years ago in East Africa, researchers argue.
