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Human Evolution

The procedure was likely extremely painful. But, afterward, the Neanderthal continued chewing with the tooth, which suggests they felt some relief.

New Research

Neanderthals Got Cavities, Too—and New Research Suggests They Drilled Into Their Teeth to Treat Them, Just Like Modern Dentists

Researchers unearthed a 59,000-year-old Neanderthal molar that shows signs of dental surgery, a discovery that pushes back the earliest evidence of dental work by roughly 45,000 years

Neanderthals and modern humans have differently shaped skulls, which scientists have long assumed meant they also had different brains. But new research challenges that assumption.

New Research

Did Homo Sapiens Really Outsmart Neanderthals? Different Skull Shapes Didn’t Necessarily Mean Unequal Brain Capacity, New Research Shows

A study from U.S. and Chinese researchers suggests Neanderthals and early modern humans probably had similar cognitive abilities

Scientists now think humans settled South America in three waves.

A New Big Database of DNA From Indigenous Americans Shakes Up Scientists’ Theories About Human Settlement of South America

Genomic data provides evidence for a previously unknown wave of migration, with Indigenous groups living in central and southern Mexico spreading into South America and the Caribbean starting around 1,300 years ago

New research indicates that Neanderthals had the genetic hardware for language.

Did Neanderthals Have Language? New Research Suggests They Had the Genetic Hardware for It, Like Humans

Specific genomic regions that seem to play a role in human language development evolved hundreds of thousands of years ago, before humans and Neanderthals diverged from a common ancestor, a new study finds

Natural selection has been playing a bigger role in changing modern human DNA than previously thought, according to a new study.

Humans Are Still Evolving. Natural Selection Has Favored Genes Linked to Red Hair and Less Male-Pattern Baldness, a Study Suggests

A massive study of ancient and modern DNA from thousands of West Eurasian people has identified nearly 500 genetic variants that evolution has selected for or against in recent history

Amud 7 was discovered in a cave in Israel in 1992.

Neanderthal Kids Grew Up So Fast—at Least Compared With Their Human Peers—Thanks to Genetic Adaptations to Their Environment

Scientists think Neanderthal children may have had faster growth rates because larger bodies tend to retain heat more effectively than smaller ones

Researchers found this hand ax, which appears to have been shaped around a geological feature imprint.

Cool Finds

These Big-Brained Ancestors May Have Loved Crystals Just as Much as Modern Humans Do, According to New Research

Archaeologists in Israel unearthed prehistoric hand axes that Homo erectus crafted from stones including fossils and crystals, perhaps a sign that they wanted to connect with the cosmos

The McDougall Creek wildfire burns in the hills of British Columbia, Canada, on August 17, 2023. Evacuation orders were put in place for areas near Kelowna, as the fire threatened the city of around 150,000.

Ancient Humans Mastered Fire. Now, Burning Fossil Fuels and Blazing Landscapes Threaten to ‘Undo the World’

Intensifying wildfires across the continent are spewing air pollution, putting human health at risk, particularly Americans living with chronic illnesses

Chimpanzees from the Western group attacking members of the Central group in 2019.

These Wild Chimps Have Been Fighting in a ‘Civil War’ for Nearly a Decade. It’s the Bloodiest Split Ever Seen Among Their Kind

The Ngogo chimpanzees in Uganda have divided themselves into two main factions, and dozens of deaths have been recorded since the split in 2018. A new study details the unprecedented violence, which could shed light on the evolutionary underpinnings of human warfare

An artistic rendering of the successfully hunted straight-tusked elephant, which would have been an incredible source of food for Neanderthals

After Nearly 80 Years of Doubt, Scientists Say a Spear Lodged Between Elephant Ribs Offers Evidence That Neanderthals Hunted Big Game

In 1948, amateur archaeologists unearthed the remains, which should have shifted researchers’ views of Neanderthals. But poor documentation sowed skepticism in the scientific community

An artist’s rendition of Masripithecus moghraensis  

Cool Finds

These 17-Million-Year-Old Fossils Could Rewrite the Evolutionary Tree of Apes—Including Humans

Jawbone fragments and teeth from a previously unknown species hint that the evolution of modern apes occurred in what’s now North Africa or the Arabian Peninsula, rather than in East Africa

Font-de-Gaume's artworks were discovered by a teacher in a nearby village in September 1901.

New Research

These Mesmerizing Cave Paintings Were Discovered in 1901. Now, Archaeologists Finally Know When Some of Them Were Created

Researchers had long assumed the art inside Font-de-Gaume in France was made with pigments that couldn’t be analyzed using radiocarbon dating. Then they discovered traces of charcoal

Little Foot's skull was distorted and damaged, so researchers spent years digitally reassembling the bones to understand what the individual's face might have looked like 3.67 million years ago.

New Research

See How Scientists Reconstructed the Face of Little Foot, a Human Ancestor Who Lived 3.67 Million Years Ago

For the first time, researchers have digitally reconstructed the facial fragments of the individual, who belonged to the Australopithecus genus

Researchers investigated 112 decorated ostrich eggshell fragments discovered at three sites—two in South Africa and one in Namibia.

New Research

These Intricately Decorated Ostrich Eggshells Suggest Our Ancestors May Have Understood Basic Geometry 60,000 Years Ago

The lines, right angles and other mysterious designs required careful planning and robust cognitive abilities, according to a new study

Researchers dubbed one experiment involving a roughly one-foot-tall crystal "The Monolith" in honor of Stanley Kubrick's iconic film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Chimps Seem to Love Crystals. Their Attraction Might Help Explain Humans’ Obsession With the Shimmering Stones

Hominins have been collecting calcite and quartz for at least 780,000 years. A new study hints at why

A reconstruction of a Neanderthal man at the Natural History Museum in London.

Neanderthal Men May Have Often Hooked Up With Human Women Thousands of Years Ago

Most people alive today carry a little Neanderthal DNA—except in a few spots. A new study might explain why

Researchers collected chimp urine from leaves and puddles on the forest floor in Uganda.

Wild Chimpanzees Love to Eat Boozy Fruit. Scientists Say the Proof Is in Their Pee

The work further hints that humans may have inherited our penchant for alcohol from our ape ancestors

The team analyzed 260 engraved objects discovered in caves in what is now southwest Germany, including this 40,000-year-old mammoth figurine.

New Research

Humans May Have Used These Mysterious Symbols to Encode Information Tens of Thousands of Years Before the First Writing Systems

The symbols, discovered on 40,000-year-old artifacts in caves in southwest Germany, may have been a precursor to the first written language

The study focused on Kanzi, a language-trained bonobo who died in March 2025 at the age of 44.

Can Apes Play Pretend? What Scientists Learned From Having Imaginary ‘Tea Parties’ With Kanzi the Bonobo

A new study provides evidence for imagination in a captive-raised, English language-trained animal

Chins are a uniquely human feature.

Why Do Humans Have Chins? They Might Be an Evolutionary Accident, New Research Suggests

The bony facial protrusion might be an evolutionary byproduct that resulted from changes to other parts of the skull, according to a new study

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