Around 30,000 years ago in Borneo, an ancient surgeon performed a groundbreaking operation on a child with a severe leg injury. Using rudimentary tools likely made of stone, they skillfully severed...
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...
A growing body of evidence indicates that our ancestors left Africa between approximately 70 to 60 thousand years ago. Yet, it wasn't until around 45,000 years ago that they spread across Eurasia...
A landmark new book that has researched evolutionary and linguistic development of prehistoric humans, has found that language might be older almost 8 times over what was previously believed, i.e., 1...
Zhoukoudian , home to the renowned Peking Man , serves as a pivotal site for understanding the enigma of Homo erectus and its place in human evolution. This location, situated approximately 42...
The global expansion of Homo sapiens , originating in Africa approximately 300,000 to 350,000 years ago, underscores the species' remarkable adaptability. With a behavioral flexibility that allows...
85 human footprints dating to 90,000-years-ago have been found on a beach in Morocco. But how did they get there, and what were the people doing? In 1964, when Margaret Fishback Powers wrote the...
Between 40,000 and 50,000 years ago, the lands of present-day Europe and Asia experienced a population exchange between Homo sapiens (modern humans) and Neanderthals , with the former steadily...
The Herto Man is a common name for a group of prehistoric human remains that were discovered in 1997, in the Afar Triangle in Ethiopia, in the famed Bouri Formation that yielded many ancient fossils...
The origins of clothing are shrouded in the challenges of preservation, yet traces of ancient textiles provide glimpses into our sartorial past. In 1913, during an Egyptian excavation, William...
Exploring the enigmatic aspects of Neanderthal psychology reveals intriguing facets of their cognitive landscape. While understanding an extinct species' psyche is speculative, scholars offer...
The emergence of anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens, marked a pivotal moment in human evolution, challenging long-standing debates in paleoanthropology. Approximately 100,000 years ago, a...
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...
Neanderthal childhood, once shrouded in mystery, has gradually unfolded through the unearthing of fossilized remains. Recent archaeological revelations paint a vivid picture of the challenges and...
Are you a morning person? You might have Neanderthals to thank for that! In a revelatory study, scientists have unearthed a fascinating genetic link between modern humans and our Neanderthal...
There is an assumption even today that height is determined almost exclusively by genetics. But this is based on a type of genetic determinism that underestimates the role of culture and environment...
The abrupt vanishing act of Neanderthals , Europe's exclusive human metapopulation before Homo sapiens, raises perplexing questions about their mysterious and rapid extinction . A recent study sheds...
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...
Our existence as Homo sapiens is a solitary chapter in the intricate narrative of hominin evolution . Long before we stood as the sole representatives of our lineage, our ancestors engaged with other...
The lingering question of why modern humans took considerable time to migrate from Africa finds new dimensions in recent discoveries. Contrary to the conventional narrative, the roots of our species...
In the ancient landscapes of what is now Iraq, approximately 50,000 years ago, a Neanderthal named Shanidar 1, or Nandy, navigated a challenging existence. Through the lens of contemporary scientific...
The protective capacities of shoes are obvious, and would have been just as obvious in ancient times, when the earliest modern humans walked the earth. Nevertheless, researchers have long debated...
By Eva-Maria Geigl & Thierry Grange/The Conversation How did our species, Homo sapiens , arrive in Western Europe? Published in Nature Ecology & Evolution , our new study analyses two skull...
Homo sapiens represents the last of a long line of hominins that once consisted of five different species spanning four continents. Today, we are the last humans, that is, the last of the genus Homo...