Anthropology

  1. Animals

    Bonobos rival chimps at the art of cracking oil palm nuts

    Bonobos demonstrate their overlooked nut-cracking skills in an African sanctuary.

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  2. 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.

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  3. Anthropology

    Fossil autopsy claims Lucy fell from tree

    A contested study suggests a famous fossil ancestor plunged to her death.

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  4. 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.

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  5. 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.

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  6. 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.

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  7. 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.

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  8. 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.

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  9. Anthropology

    Humans, birds communicate to collaborate

    Bird species takes hunter-gatherers to honeybees’ nests when called on.

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  10. Anthropology

    Two groups spread early agriculture

    The Fertile Crescent was a diverse place. Multiple cultures were involved in the dawn of farming.

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  11. 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.

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  12. 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.

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