Anthropology
- Anthropology
Humanity’s upright gait may have roots in trees
A comparison of wrist bones from African apes and monkeys indicates that human ancestors began walking by exploiting the evolutionary legacy of ancient, tree-climbing apes.
- Health & Medicine
Chimpanzees die from primate version of HIV
A new study links the simian immunodeficiency virus to serious AIDS-like illness in a wild population.
- Anthropology
Maize may have fueled ancient Andean civilization
A chemical analysis of skeletons from Peru’s Andes Mountains suggests that cultivation of key crop made building a prehistoric civilization possible.
- Health & Medicine
Of ‘science’ and fetal whaling
Japan had been sacrificing a large number of pregnant whales in the name of science.
- Animals
Extensive toolkits give chimps a taste of honey
Chimps living in central Africa’s dense forests make and use complex sets of tools to gather honey from beehives, further narrowing the gap between the way humans and chimps use tools.
- Anthropology
Hobbit foot, hippo skulls deepen ancestral mystery
Hobbit fossils pose puzzling evolutionary questions for scientists in two new studies, one of hobbit foot bones and another of brain size in extinct pygmy hippos.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
