Anthropology
- Animals
Bonobos rival chimps at the art of cracking oil palm nuts
Bonobos demonstrate their overlooked nut-cracking skills in an African sanctuary.
- Humans
Brain’s blood appetite grew faster than its size
Over evolutionary time, the energy demands of hominid brains increased faster than their volume, a new study finds.
- Anthropology
Fossil autopsy claims Lucy fell from tree
A contested study suggests a famous fossil ancestor plunged to her death.
- Science & Society
Historian traces rise of celebrity hominid fossils
In Seven Skeletons, Lydia Pyne explores the cultural histories of the most iconic fossil figures in human evolution.
- Paleontology
Humans may have taken different path into Americas than thought
An ice-free corridor through the North American Arctic may have been too barren to support the first human migrations into the New World.
- Anthropology
Notorious ‘ape-man’ fossil hoax pinned on one wrongdoer
New Piltdown Man study pegs infamous ‘ape-man’ skull forgery on one well-informed culprit.
- Earth
China’s mythical ‘Great Flood’ possibly rooted in real disaster
Folktales of an ancient flood that helped kick off Chinese civilization may reference a nearly 4,000-year-old deluge.
- Anthropology
Oldest evidence of cancer in human family tree found
Bony growths on fossils may push origins of this disease way back in the Stone Age.
- Anthropology
Humans, birds communicate to collaborate
Bird species takes hunter-gatherers to honeybees’ nests when called on.
- Anthropology
Two groups spread early agriculture
The Fertile Crescent was a diverse place. Multiple cultures were involved in the dawn of farming.
- Anthropology
Earliest evidence of monkeys’ use of stone tools found
600- to 700-year-old nut-cracking stones from Brazil are earliest evidence that monkeys used tools.
- Animals
Documentary looks for meaning in Koko the gorilla’s life
'Koko — The Gorilla Who Talks' documents the nearly 45-year relationship between researcher Penny Patterson and Koko, the subject of an ape sign language project.
