Anthropology

  1. Anthropology

    African pygmies may be older than thought

    A new DNA analysis indicates that pygmy hunter-gatherers and farming groups in Africa diverged from a common ancestral population around 60,000 years ago.

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  2. Animals

    Chimps ambidextrous when digging wells

    A survey of water-collection holes dug on the banks of an African river by wild chimpanzees indicates that, unlike people, these apes don’t have a preference for using either the right or left hand on manual tasks.

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  3. Anthropology

    Hobbit brain small, but organized for complex intelligence

    Evolution may have endowed a controversial species with small but humanlike brains equipped to support advanced thinking

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  4. Tech

    Whiz Kids: The Movie

    New independent film showcases the arduous path by which extraodinary high school researchers reach the Science Talent Search competition in Washington, D.C.

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  5. Anthropology

    Peking Man fossils show their age

    Scientists have pushed back the age of Peking Man, raising questions about whether Homo erectus trekked to eastern Asia in two separate migrations.

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  6. Anthropology

    Modern feet step back 1.5 million years

    Researchers say that 1.5-million-year-old footprints discovered in eastern Africa show that a human ancestor had modern-looking feet and walked much like people do today.

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  7. Archaeology

    An ancient healer reborn

    A research team in Israel has uncovered one of the oldest known graves of a shaman. The 12,000-year-old grave hosts a woman’s skeleton surrounded by the remains of unusual animals.

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  8. Life

    The Iceman’s mysterious genetic past

    Scientists say that they have identified the complete mitochondrial DNA sequence of the 5,000-year-old Tyrolean Iceman, whose body was found protruding from a glacier in 1991.

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  9. Ecosystems

    Tracing Tahitian vanilla

    The discovery of Tahitian vanilla’s heritage could set off a custody battle between nations.

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  10. Anthropology

    Loud and clear

    Skulls of Neandertal ancestors show the prehistoric humans had a hearing capacity similar to present-day people, suggesting human speech could have originated much earlier than previously thought.

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  11. Anthropology

    Numbers beyond words

    New research with Amazonian villagers suggests that their language lacks number words but that they still comprehend precise quantities of objects.

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  12. Anthropology

    They’re fake, Indy!

    Scientists find that two rock crystal skulls often attributed to pre-Columbian societies are really modern phonies.

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