Anthropology

  1. Genetics

    Ancient DNA unveils Siberian Neandertals’ small-scale social lives

    Females often moved into their mate’s communities, which totaled about 20 individuals, researchers say.

    By Bruce Bower
  2. Humans

    Here’s where jazz gets its swing

    Swing, the feeling of a rhythm in jazz music that compels feet to tap, may arise from near-imperceptible delays in musicians’ timing, a study shows.

    By Nikk Ogasa
  3. Anthropology

    Tina Lasisi wants to untangle the evolution of human hair

    Tina Lasisi is pioneering studies of human variation in an ethical and scientifically sound way.

    By Aina Abell
  4. Anthropology

    In Maya society, cacao use was for everyone, not just royals

    Previously considered a preserve of Maya elites, cacao was consumed across all social strata, a new study finds.

    By Richard Kemeny
  5. Anthropology

    Fossil finds put gibbons in Asia as early as 8 million years ago

    Specimens from China raise questions about the evolutionary ID of an even older ape tooth from India.

    By Bruce Bower
  6. Anthropology

    Humans may have started tending animals almost 13,000 years ago

    Remnants from an ancient fire pit in Syria suggest that hunter-gatherers were burning dung as fuel by the end of the Old Stone Age.

    By Richard Kemeny
  7. Anthropology

    The oldest known surgical amputation occurred 31,000 years ago

    A young adult on the island of Borneo survived a lower left leg removal thanks to medically savvy rainforest surgeons.

    By Bruce Bower
  8. Anthropology

    How mythology could help demystify dog domestication

    The path that dog myths took around the world closely parallels that of dog domestication, a new study finds.

    By Elyse DeFranco
  9. Anthropology

    7-million-year-old limb fossils may be from the earliest known hominid

    An earlier report on one of the bones of a 7-million-year-old creature that may have walked upright has triggered scientific misconduct charges.

    By Bruce Bower
  10. Anthropology

    ‘The Five-Million-Year Odyssey’ reveals how migration shaped humankind

    A globe-trotting trek through history shows how past population migrations changed the course of human biology and culture.

    By Bruce Bower
  11. Anthropology

    Famine and disease may have driven ancient Europeans’ lactose tolerance

    Dealing with food shortages and infections over thousands of years, not widespread milk consumption, may be how an ability to digest dairy evolved.

    By Bruce Bower
  12. Humans

    Ancient DNA links an East Asian Homo sapiens woman to early Americans

    Genetic clues point to a Late Stone Age trek from southwestern China to North America.

    By Bruce Bower