Palaeoanthropology

The Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) has led a new international study published in the journal Quaternary Geochronology, about the direct dating of a fossil tooth of Homo antecessor from the unit TD6 of the archaeological site of Gran Dolina in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain).

The recently-discovered species Homo naledi may have had a pint-sized brain, but that brain packed a big punch. New research by Ralph Holloway and colleagues - that include researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand examines the imprints of the brain upon the skulls of this species, called endocasts.

An international team of researchers led by Dr Thomas Ingicco from the Museum national d’Histoire naturelle, France, and M. Clyde Shago-on from the National Museum of the Philippines discovered the oldest evidence of hominins occupation in the Philippines.

The Dental Anthropology Group of the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) has analysed dental samples from two of the most important Middle Pleistocene archaeological sites in Europe, the Arago Cave, in southern France, and Sima de los Huesos (Atapuerca), in northern Spain.

Scientists have long wondered why the physical traits of Neanderthals, the ancestors of modern humans, differ greatly from today's man.

Neanderthals and Homo sapiens could not have coexisted for more than a millennium in the Cantabrian Region, which reduces significantly the possibilities for interaction between the two groups and tends to reinforce the hypothesis of an intrinsic cause of extinction, according to a study based on radiocarbon dates from thirteen archaeological sites in this area of southwestern Europe.

Trade and social networking helped our Homo sapiens ancestors survive a climate-changing volcanic eruption 40,000 years ago, giving hope that we will be able to ride out global warming by staying interconnected, a new study suggests.

When we think of Neanderthals, we often imagine these distant ancestors of ours to be rather brutish, dying at a young age and ultimately becoming extinct. But new findings show that at least some of these ancient Neanderthals survived into old age – despite suffering from sickness or diseases.

A project led by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History has discovered a fossilized finger bone of an early modern human in the Nefud Desert of Saudi Arabia, dating to approximately 90,000 years ago.

Highly mobile eyebrows that can be used to express a wide range of subtle emotions may have played a crucial role in human survival, new research from the University of York suggests.

An international team of researchers, led by Dr. Asier Gomez-Olivencia of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and including Binghamton University anthropologist Rolf Quam, has provided new insights on one of the most famous Neandertal skeletons, discovered over 100 years ago: La Ferrassie 1.

They have an unwarranted image as brutish and uncaring, but new research has revealed just how knowledgeable and effective Neanderthal healthcare was.

Modern humans have brains that are more than three times larger than our closest living relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos.

The Dental Anthropology Group of the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) forms part of the team which has just published a paper in American Journal of Physical Anthropology on the morphological analysis of the dentin in the lower molars of the population of the archaeological site of Sima de los Huesos (Atapuerca, Burgos), using three-dimensional geometric morphometry, in order to study the origin of the Neanderthals.

Neanderthals had large brains and made complex tools but never demonstrated the ability to draw recognizable images, unlike early modern humans who created vivid renderings of animals and other figures on rocks and cave walls.