Anthropology

Anthropology

Grannies give gift of longer lives

Data from two 18th- and 19th-century farming communities supports the theory that child care assistance from grandmothers has contributed to the evolution of extended human longevity.

Anthropology

Brain Size Surprise: All primates may share expanded frontal cortex

A new analysis of brains from a variety of mammal species indicates that frontal-cortex expansion has occurred in all primates, not just in people, as scientists have traditionally assumed.

Anthropology

Extinct ancestor wasn’t so finicky

Contrary to much anthropological thought, the genus Paranthropus showed as much dietary and behavioral flexibility as ancient Homo species did between 3 million and 1 million years ago.

Anthropology

Early Ancestors Come Together: Humanity’s roots may lie in single, diverse genus

Newly discovered fossil teeth in eastern Africa that are more than 5 million years old suggest that the earliest members of the human family evolved as a single, anatomically diverse genus.

Anthropology

Linguists in Siberia record dying tongues

Researchers trekking through remote Russian villages have identified and interviewed some of the last remaining speakers of two Turkic languages.

Anthropology

Some Primates’ Sheltered Lives: Baboons, chimps enter the realm of cave

In separate studies, researchers have gathered the first systematic evidence showing that baboons and chimpanzees regularly use caves, a behavior many anthropologists have attributed only to people and our direct ancestors.

Anthropology

European find gets Stone Age date

A new radiocarbon analysis indicates that a skeleton found more than a century ago in an Italian cave dates to around 26,400 to 23,200 years ago.

Anthropology

Baboons demonstrate social proficiency

Wild baboons exhibit a richer, more complex social life than scientists have often assumed, according to two new studies.

Anthropology

Baboons demonstrate social proficiency

Wild baboons exhibit a richer, more complex social life than scientists have often assumed, according to two new studies.

Anthropology

Anklebone kicks up primate debate

The discoverers of a roughly 40-million-year-old anklebone in Myanmar say that it supports the controversial theory that anthropoids, a primate group that includes monkeys, apes, and humans, originated in Asia.

Anthropology

Europe’s Iceman was a valley guy

The 5,200-year-old Iceman, whose mummified body was found 12 years ago in the Alps between Italy and Austria, spent his life in the valleys just south of where his body was found, according to chemical analyses of his remains.

Anthropology

Stone Age Code Red: Scarlet symbols emerge in Israeli cave

Lumps of red ocher excavated near human graves in an Israeli cave indicate that symbolic thinking occurred at least 90,000 years ago, much earlier than archaeologists have traditionally assumed.