Prehistoric Africa served as a gruesome theater of survival for early humans, challenging their very existence. Anthropologist Raymond Dart's grim portrayal depicts our ancestors not as idyllic...
Archaeologists excavating the Siberian permafrost have uncovered a wealth of artifacts, shedding light on the enigmatic Denisovans and their ancient predecessors. Among the finds are finely crafted...
University of Cambridge Competition between species played a major role in the rise and fall of hominins -- and produced a "bizarre" evolutionary pattern for the Homo lineage -- according to a new...
By Nicholas R. Longrich/The Conversation Why did humans take over the world while our closest relatives, the Neanderthals, became extinct? It’s possible we were just smarter, but there’s surprisingly...
About one million years ago there was a mass exodus of hominin species out of Africa and into Eurasia. Human ancestors fled their home continent in droves, raising questions about why this would have...
After five decades of speculation about their true origin, ancient stone tools removed from the archaeological site of Korolevo in western Ukraine have been successfully dated for the first time...
The emergence of fire mastery represents a transformative juncture in human development, potentially initiated by early hominins like Homo erectus around 1.6 million years ago . Although the precise...
New York University Humans and our closest relatives, living apes, display a remarkable diversity of types of locomotion—from walking upright on two legs to climbing in trees and walking using all...
2023 could likely be viewed as a coming-of-age story for our Neanderthal cousins, as they further shed their brutish image, revealing themselves as skilled hunters and surprising artisans. We learned...
Recent fossil evidence challenges the prevailing narrative of human evolution, shifting the focus from Africa to Europe's westernmost reaches. Conventional beliefs, rooted in the Out of Africa theory...
The majority of Neanderthals , much like modern Homo sapiens, exhibited a strong preference for using their right hand , as evidenced by the accidental scratches on their teeth. This intriguing...
The Steinheim skull, found on 24 July 1933 near Steinheim an der Murr, Germany, is a perplexing artifact in paleoanthropology , challenges the established narrative of human evolution. Dating back to...
A recent study published in the esteemed Journal Science challenges conventional beliefs about the evolution of skin color in ancient humans. Contrary to the notion that dark skin evolved in Africa...
Neanderthals have been recognized as a species distinct from modern humans for quite some time. But if a trio of researchers from universities in Portugal, Italy and Spain get their way, this...
When Virgin Galactic’s private spaceship, the VSS Unity, was launched into orbit on September 8, it was carrying a most unique cargo. These were two fossilized bones that belonged to two different...
In the 1960s, when scientists conducted excavations at a site dating back 1.4 million years in northern Israel, they encountered a baffling discovery - they uncovered nearly 600 stone ‘balls’ amongst...
Modern humans first left Africa and migrated to Eurasia between 60,000 and 100,000 years ago . But a fossilized skeleton with surprisingly human-like characteristics found in central Turkey suggests...
Excavated in the 1990s, the legendary Schöningen spears from Germany, the oldest weapons in human history, have consistently provided fascinating insights into the behavior of our early human...
The Schöningen Spears , excavated in Germany in the 1990s, provide remarkable insights into the lives of Neanderthals, challenging the notion of them being unintelligent scavengers. These wooden...
A human leg bone dating back to 1.45 million years ago is marked with 11 tiny cut marks. A new study shows that while two were made by an animal, probably a lion, the remaining 9 suggest another...
A team of scientists has unveiled fascinating insights into the evolutionary significance of human hair texture. By testing various wigs on a specially designed dummy exposed to solar radiation in a...
Until now, the use of controlled fires for cooking, in Europe, was thought to have begun around 200,000 years ago. However, scientists in Spain have discovered a set of small prehistoric fire pits or...
Around 300,000 years ago, a family of early humans visited a lake bordered by an open forest in what is now Lower Saxony, Germany. The footprints left behind at the Schöningen Paleolithic site have...
Ample archaeological and geological evidence has now been uncovered that suggests archaic humans were building boats and crossing the Aegean Sea as long as 450,000 years ago, the authors of a new...