Evolution

Archaeology

Fossils hint hominids migrated through a ‘green’ Arabia 300,000 years ago

A once-green Arabia may have enabled Stone Age entries by Homo groups.

Humans

A 90,000-year-old bone knife hints special tools appeared early in Africa

The discovery of a bone knife in a Moroccan cave points to the ancient emergence of specialized toolmaking in the region.

Anthropology

Butchered bird bones put humans in Madagascar 10,500 years ago

Humans reached the island near Africa 6,000 years earlier than thought, raising questions about how its megafauna went extinct.

Archaeology

This South African cave stone may bear the world’s oldest drawing

The Stone Age line design could have held special meaning for its makers, a new study finds.

Archaeology

Stone tools put early hominids in China 2.1 million years ago

Newly discovered stone tools in China suggest hominids left Africa 250,000 years earlier than we thought.

Anthropology

Foot fossil pegs hominid kids as upright walkers 3.3 million years ago

A foot from an ancient hominid child suggests that Lucy’s species, Australopithecus afarensis, walked early in life.

Anthropology

Modern chimp brains share similarities with ancient hominids

MRIs suggest certain brain folding patterns don’t mark ancient humanlike neural advances after all, raising questions about hominid brain evolution.

Anthropology

Ancient climate shifts may have sparked human ingenuity and networking

Stone tools signal rise of social networking by 320,000 years ago in East Africa, researchers argue.

Anthropology

Humans don’t get enough sleep. Just ask other primates.

Short, REM-heavy sleep bouts separate humans from other primates, scientists find. Sleeping on the ground may have a lot to do with it.

Archaeology

Cave art suggests Neandertals were ancient humans’ mental equals

Ancient humans’ close relatives also created rock art and shell ornaments, studies assert.

Anthropology

Human brains rounded into shape over 200,000 years or more

Ancient humans’ brains slowly but surely became round, scientists say.

Humans

The story of humans’ origins got a revision in 2017

Human evolution may have involved the gradual assembly of scattered skeletal traits, fossils of Homo naledi and other species show.