Inbreeding and population/demographic shifts could have led to Neanderthal extinction
Small populations, inbreeding, and random demographic fluctuations could have been enough to cause Neanderthal extinction, according to a study published by Krist Vaesen from Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands, and colleagues.
Human migration out of Africa may have followed monsoons in the Middle East
Last year, scientists announced that a human jawbone and prehistoric tools found in 2002 in Misliya Cave, on the western edge of Israel, were between 177,000 and 194,000 years old.
Were other humans the first victims of the sixth mass extinction?
Nine human species walked the Earth 300,000 years ago. Now there is just one. The Neanderthals, Homo neanderthalensis, were stocky hunters adapted to Europe’s cold steppes.
New study on early human fire acquisition squelches debate
Fire starting is a skill that many modern humans struggle with, in the absence of a lighter or matches.
Did a common childhood illness take down the Neanderthals?
It is one of the great unsolved mysteries of anthropology. What killed off the Neanderthals, and why did Homo sapiens thrive even as Neanderthals withered to extinction?
Rare 10 million-year-old fossil unearths new view of human evolution
Near an old mining town in Central Europe, known for its picturesque turquoise-blue quarry water, lay Rudapithecus. For 10 million years, the fossilized ape waited in Rudabánya, Hungary, to add its story to the origins of how humans evolved.
A face for Lucy’s ancestor
The 3.8 million-year-old fossil cranium represents a time interval between 4.1 and 3.6 million years ago, when A. anamensis gave rise to A. afarensis.
Researchers used morphological features...
One argument for Neanderthal genius debunked
Neanderthals and other early humans were able to produce a tarry glue from birch bark; this was long considered proof of a high level of cognitive and cultural development.
Neanderthals commonly suffered from ‘swimmer’s ear’
Abnormal bony growths in the ear canal were surprisingly common in Neanderthals, according to a study published by Erik Trinkaus of Washington University and...
New study in Science: Why humans in Africa fled to the mountains during the last ice age
People in Ethiopia did not live in low valleys during the last ice age. Instead they lived high up in the inhospitable Bale Mountains.
Spain and Algeria collaborate in the study of the first human occupation in North Africa
Scientists have collaborated in a new round of fieldwork at the site of Ain Hanech in northeastern Algeria to investigate the Tempo and Mode of the earliest human occupation in North Africa.
Oldest human skull outside Africa identified as 210,000 years old
A 210,000-year-old human skull could provide new evidence that our species left Africa much earlier than previously thought.
Ancient molar points to interbreeding between archaic humans and Homo sapiens in Asia
An analysis of a 160,000-year-old archaic human molar fossil discovered in China offers the first morphological evidence of interbreeding between archaic humans and Homo sapiens in Asia.
Neanderthals made repeated use of the ancient settlement of ‘Ein Qashish, Israel
The archaeological site of 'Ein Qashish in northern Israel was a place of repeated Neanderthal occupation and use during the Middle Paleolithic, according to a study by Ravid Ekshtain of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and colleagues.
The CENIEH collaborates in the excavation of the Sendrayanpalayam site in India
The Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) is part of an international project, funded by the Fundación PALARQ and The Leakey Foundation, whose objective is to investigate the characteristics and timing of the end of the Acheulian and transitions to the Middle Palaeolithic in India.
