Anthropology

Anthropology

Fossil Sparks

Two new fossil discoveries and an analysis of ancient teeth challenge traditional assumptions about ape and human evolution.

Anthropology

Not So Clear-Cut: Soil erosion may not have led to Mayan downfall

Hand-planted maize, beans, and squash sustained the Mayans for millennia, until their culture collapsed about 1,100 years ago. Some researchers have suggested that the Mayans’ very success in turning forests into farmland led to soil erosion that made farming increasingly difficult and eventually caused their downfall. But a new study of ancient lake sediments has […]

Anthropology

Going Coastal: Sea cave yields ancient signs of modern behavior

A South African cave yields evidence of complex, symbolic behavior among ancient people about 164,000 years ago, the oldest such indications yet.

Anthropology

Ancient DNA moves Neandertals eastward

Evidence from mitochondrial DNA indicates that Neandertals lived 2,000 kilometers farther east than previously thought.

Anthropology

Sail Away: Tools reveal extent of ancient Polynesian trips

Rock from Hawaii was fashioned into a stone tool found in Polynesian islands more than 4,000 kilometers to the south, indicating that canoeists made the sea journey around 1,000 years ago.

Anthropology

Walking Small: Humanlike legs took Homo out of Africa

Newly discovered fossils, 1.77 million years old, show that the earliest known human ancestors to leave Africa for Asia possessed humanlike legs, feet, and spines, but strikingly small brains and primitive arms.

Anthropology

Advantage: Starch

An enhanced ability to digest starch may have given early humans an evolutionary advantage over their ape relatives.

Anthropology

Men’s fertile role in evolving long lives

The ability of men 55 and older to father children may have had evolutionary effects that caused both sexes to develop longer lifespans.

Anthropology

Red-Ape Stroll

Wild orangutans regularly walk upright through the trees, raising the controversial possibility that the two-legged stance is not unique to hominids.

Anthropology

Ape Aid: Chimps share altruistic capacity with people

Chimpanzees, as well as 18-month-old children, will assist strangers even when getting no personal reward, suggesting that human altruism has deep evolutionary roots.

Anthropology

Chicken of the Sea: Poultry may have reached Americas via Polynesia

Polynesians may have traveled back and forth to South America more than 600 years ago, introducing chickens to the Americas in the process.

Anthropology

When female chimps become baby killers

Although long thought to be rare, instances in which female chimps band together to kill other females' infants occur fairly regularly under certain circumstances.