Human Evolution

Delightful or despicable? Your response could help neuroscientists understand the brain's basis for disgust.

What Stinky Cheese Tells Us About the Science of Disgust

Why does this pungent delicacy give some the munchies, but send others reeling to the toilet?

Skeleton of the Neanderthal boy recovered from the El Sidrón cave complex (Asturias, Spain).

Modern Humans and Neanderthals May Be More Similar Than We Imagined

A remarkably preserved 49,000-year-old skeleton shows that Neanderthal kids may have grown slowly, like us

Mount Hora, the site in Malawi where an 8,100-year-old skeleton was found, yielding the oldest-known DNA from Africa.

Ancient DNA Helps Scientists Shed Light on How Ancient Africans Moved and Mixed

New techniques help explain why there is little genetic overlap between modern and ancient Malawi people—and promise much more

Nyanzapithecus alesi skull

Is This Baby Animal the Last Common Ancestor of Humans and Apes?

The 13-million-year-old skull found in Kenya combines early ape and gibbon-like features

The engraved bones found in Gough's Cave

New Analysis Indicates Early Britons Engaged in Ritualistic Cannibalism

A zigzag pattern on an arm bone indicates around 15,000 years ago, humans in Britain may have consumed others as part of a funeral rite

Human Artifacts Found at 46 Ancient Lakes in the Arabian Desert

The finds add to evidence that a wetter "Green Arabia" was an important stop in the migration of early humans

A crowd gathers in the "Bird Migration" exhibit at the Steinhardt Museum during the inauguration event.

The Middle East Is a Treasure Trove of Natural Wonders. Now It Has a Museum to Show Them Off

Everything from early human skulls to priceless taxidermy relics will be on display in the ark-shaped museum

The Neanderthal teeth, including the impacted molar

Neanderthals May Have Used Toothpicks to Treat Aching Teeth

A Neanderthal living in what is now Croatia and wore grooves in his or her teeth trying to soothe the pain

A jawbone from one of the fossils of the earliest Homo sapiens ever found.

Humans Evolved 100,000 Years Earlier Than We Thought—But Mysteries Remain

Moroccan fossil discovery alters the accepted narrative of when humans evolved and how they spread through Africa

View looking south of the Jebel Irhoud site in Morocco, where the fossils were found

The Science Behind the Discovery of the Oldest Homo Sapien

We need both genetics and anthropology to solve the mysteries of human origins, says a researcher on the team

Aubrey de Grey says, “There’s no such thing as aging gracefully.”

Can Human Mortality Really Be Hacked?

Backed by the digital fortunes of Silicon Valley, biotech companies are brazenly setting out to “cure” aging

This spine is the earliest intact reference for how humans' skeletons may have developed.

This 3.3-Million-Year-Old Hominin Toddler Was Kind of Like Us

Analysis of the ancient spine reveals tantalizing similarities—and questions about human evolution

The skull of Neo, one of the bodies found in the Lesedi Chamber

Ancient Human Cousin May Have Lived Alongside Early Homo Sapiens

<i>Homo naledi</i> may have been much younger—and more advanced—than previously thought

The ginkgo biloba or Maidenhair tree has been around for at least 270 million years, making it the botanical equivalent of the shark.

The World Told Through the Eyes of the Ginkgo Tree

By deciding this ancient plant was worthy of their attention, humans ended up dramatically shaping its evolution

The stone flakes are flying, but what brain regions are firing?

How Smart Were Early Humans? “Neuroarchaeology” Offers Some Answers

Brain Imaging Gives Insight Into Early Human Minds

The surface of mastodon bone showing half impact notch on a segment of femur.

Remarkable New Evidence for Human Activity in North America 130,000 Years Ago

Researchers say prehistoric mastodon bones bear human-made markings

Homo floresiensis

The "Hobbits" Could Be Much Older Than Once Thought

The Flores hobbits' ancestor may have ventured out of Africa much earlier than previously thought

View of the exhibition Body Worlds Pulse Gunther von Hagens that counts the history of human body in the 21st century at Discovery Times Square in New York in the United States.

Why Are We So Obsessed With Dead Bodies?

<i>Body Worlds</i> taps into a long, fraught history of humans displaying the deceased for "science"

Are orangutans aware that others have different minds than their own?

Monkeys May Recognize False Beliefs—Knocking Over Yet Another Pillar of Human Cognition

Apes may be aware of the minds of others—yet another remarkable finding about the cognitive abilities of non-human animals

Artifacts Found in Indonesian Cave Show Complexities of Ice Age Culture

Pendants and buttons as well as carvings suggest the inhabitants of Wallacea were as advanced as Europeans during the Ice Age

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