Anthropology

  1. Anthropology

    Neandertals return at German cave site

    Researchers who tracked down the location of a German cave where the first Neandertal skeleton was discovered in 1856 have unearthed new Neandertal finds.

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  2. Anthropology

    Lost-and-Found Fossil Tot: Neandertal baby rises from French archive

    The approximately 40,000-year-old skeleton of a Neandertal baby, filed and forgotten in a French museum for nearly 90 years, has been recovered by an anthropologist.

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  3. Anthropology

    Gene change hints at brain evolution

    A genetic mutation found only in humans first appeared around 2.8 million years ago, perhaps setting the stage for brain enlargement in the Homo lineage.

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  4. Anthropology

    Ancient populations were game for growth

    Archaeological evidence of a Stone Age shift in dietary preferences, from slow to swift small game, suggests that the human population rose sharply sometime between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago.

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  5. Anthropology

    Drowned land holds clue to first Americans

    A map of a now-flooded region charts the path that Asians may have taken to first reach the Americas.

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  6. Anthropology

    Evolution’s Surprise: Fossil find uproots our early ancestors

    Researchers announced the discovery of a nearly complete fossil skull, along with jaw fragments and isolated teeth, from the earliest known member of the human evolutionary family, which lived in central Africa between 7 million and 6 million years ago.

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  7. Anthropology

    Cultures of Reason

    East Asian and Western cultures may encourage fundamentally different reasoning styles, rather than build on universal processes often deemed necessary for thinking.

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  8. Anthropology

    Ishi’s Long Road Home

    The reappearance of a California Indian's preserved brain, held at the Smithsonian Institution since 1917, triggers debate over the ethics of anthropological research and the repatriation process.

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  9. Anthropology

    Searching for the Tree of Babel

    Researchers are using new methods of comparing languages to reveal information about the ancestry of different cultural groups and answer questions about human history.

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  10. Anthropology

    Attack of the Ancestor: Neandertals took a stab at violent assaults

    The pieced-together fragments of a 36,000-year-old Neandertal skull reveal a bony scar caused by a blow from a sharp tool or weapon.

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  11. Anthropology

    The DNA Divide: Chimps, people differ in brain’s gene activity

    The distinctive looks and thinking styles of people and chimpanzees derive from the contrasting productivities of their similar DNA sequences.

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  12. Anthropology

    Unified Erectus: Fossil suggests single human ancestor

    A newly found fossil skull may clear up an ongoing debate about whether the human ancestor Homo erectus was a single or several species.

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