Anthropology
- Anthropology
Reservoirs of Evolution: Rainy periods linked to human origins in Africa
Three phases of heavy rainfall in eastern Africa between 2.7 million and 900,000 years ago created deep lakes and might have played a critical role in the evolution of human ancestors.
- Anthropology
The Human Wave
Anatomically modern people evolved in small groups of ancient Homo sapiens that never traveled too far but continually interbred with nearby groups, including other Homo species, creating a genetic wave that moved from Africa across Asia, a new model suggests.
- Anthropology
People fired up Aussie extinctions
Early Australian settlers may have altered the continent's landscape around 50,000 years ago, leading to the extinction of many animal species.
- Anthropology
Climate shift shaped Aussie extinctions
Stone Age people lived virtually side-by-side with now-extinct animals in western Australia for 6,000 years.
- Anthropology
Faithful Ancestors
A controversial fossil analysis supports the view that, more than 3 million years ago, human ancestors living in eastern Africa favored long-term mating partnerships.
- Anthropology
Carnivore conflicts gnaw at Neandertals
Discoveries in a French cave indicate that by about 41,000 years ago, Neandertals and hyenas competed for prey and for access to protected sites where they could safely consume their food.
- Anthropology
Founding Families: New World was settled by small tribe
A new genetic analysis indicates that only about 200 to 300 people crossed the ice age land bridge from Asia to become the founding population of North America.
- Anthropology
Coasting to Asia in the Stone Age
New genetic analyses of people from native island groups in Southeast Asia support the unconventional view that around 70,000 years ago, people living in Africa crossed the Red Sea and moved east along Asia's southern coast.
- Anthropology
These spines were made for walking
A new analysis of fossil backbones indicates that human ancestors living around 3 million years ago were able to walk much as people today do.
- Anthropology
Noses didn’t need cold to evolve
Neandertals evolved big, broad noses not in response to a cold climate, as has often been argued, but in conjunction with the expansion of their upper jaws.
- Anthropology
Stone Age Cutups: Deathly rituals emerge at Neandertal site
A new analysis of 130,000-year-old fossils found in a Croatian cave a century ago suggests that Neandertals ritually cut up corpses of their comrades and perhaps engaged in cannibalism.
- Anthropology
Untangling Ancient Roots: Earliest hominid shows new, improved face
New fossil finds and a digitally reconstructed skull bolster the claim that the oldest known member of the human evolutionary family lived in central Africa between 6 million and 7 million years ago.
