Human Origins

The carved boulder, which weighs about 60 pounds and measures less than a foot across, “may have represented a totem or a mythological or spiritual figure,” says archaeologist Omry Barzilai.

A Mysterious Boulder Carved to Look Like a Tortoise Shell May Offer Evidence of the Middle East's Earliest Ritual Ceremonies

The 35,000-year-old rock was found in Manot Cave, which was inhabited by both prehistoric humans and Neanderthals

New research suggests early humans hunted and ate mammoths, as well as elk and bison, to a lower degree.

An Ice Age Infant's Bones Reveal Early Americans Ate Woolly Mammoths as a Protein Staple

New research examines chemical signatures to determine the diet of a prehistoric boy and his mother, suggesting the Clovis people relied on mammoths for a large portion of their menu

The hand ax, seen here beside a 20-pence coin, is between 40,000 and 60,000 years old.

A Little Boy Found a Strange Stone on the Beach. Archaeologists Told Him It Was a Neanderthal's Hand Ax

The artifact is now on display at a museum in southern England. Experts say the find is "so rare that most qualified archaeologists would never find one themselves"

Researchers hypothesize that this footprint was made by a member of the hominin species Paranthropus boisei.

Footprints Reveal Two Early Human Species Walked the Same Lakeshore in Kenya 1.5 Million Years Ago

A new, “mind-blowing” discovery reveals evidence that Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei stepped at the same site within days—or hours—of each other

A sculptor's rendering of "Lucy," Australopithecus afarensis, at the Houston Museum of Natural Science on August 28, 2007, in Houston, Texas.

What 'Lucy,' One of the World's Most Important Fossils, Has Taught Scientists in the 50 Years Since Her Discovery

The famous early human is still providing lessons to anthropologists about prehistoric Earth and its inhabitants

A 3D reconstruction of the fossil skull of a youth of an early Homo species from Dmanisi, Georgia. The green, orange and red colors represent the preserved teeth, while the blue represent missing ones and the purple teeth have not been recovered.

These Fossil Teeth From an 11-Year-Old Reveal Clues to Why Humans Developed an Unusually Long Childhood

Roughly 1.77-million-year-old teeth show that slow development in hominids may have had an earlier start than previously thought, according to a new study

At Mata Menge, researchers found a tiny adult upper arm bone that belonged to an individual who lived 700,000 years ago, shedding light on the origins of Homo floresiensis.

Fossils Shed New Light on Small 'Hobbit-Like' Humans That Lived on a Remote Island

Two teeth and a small adult arm bone found in Indonesia suggest the ancestors of Homo floresiensis were even shorter than scientists previously thought

A woman stands behind a model of a Neanderthal at the Natural History Museum in London. Contrary to the narrative that early humans left Africa roughly 50,000 years ago, a new study finds our species migrated from the continent on multiple occasions.

Early Humans Migrated Out of Africa Several Times, DNA Study Suggests

Homo sapiens interbred with Neanderthals as early as 250,000 years ago and may have ultimately bred them out of existence, according to new research

Sue O'Connor (left) and Shimona Kealy (right) study some of the artifacts found in Timor-Leste, which offer clues that early humans took a more northern path from Southeast Asia to Australia tens of thousands of years ago.

Archaeologists Discover Clues to Ancient Migration Route That Brought Humans to Australia

New research offers evidence that humans did not inhabit the island of Timor until around 44,000 years ago, suggesting it was not part of the original migration route from Southeast Asia to Australia

Fossilized footprints, preserved in gypsum mud that hardened over time, are estimated to be 23,000-21,000 years old. 

Tracking Humans’ First Footsteps in North America

At a site in New Mexico, a new discovery rewrites the human history of the continent

An anonymous dentist recognized the jawbone, because it looked similar to the CT scans he reviews every day at work.

Dentist Discovers Human-Like Jawbone and Teeth in a Floor Tile at His Parents' Home

Scientists are planning to study the specimen, embedded in travertine from western Turkey, in hopes of dating and identifying it

Indonesia's Lake Toba, formed by a volcanic eruption around 74,000 years ago. In the new study, researchers uncovered fragments of glass from the eruption at an archaeological site in northwest Ethiopia, pointing to the volcano's global impacts.

Stone Age People Survived a Supervolcano Eruption by Adapting to Dry Periods, Archaeologists Suggest

Humans living in northwest Ethiopia around 74,000 years ago switched to eating more fish following the eruption, a behavior that might have enabled migration out of Africa

A view of the Korolevo archaeological site. Researchers used the decay of isotopes in rocks dug up from the site to determine the age of the stone tools.

Stone Tools Found in Ukraine May Be the Oldest Evidence of Early Humans in Europe

The 1.4-million-year-old rocks may have belonged to Homo erectus, and they shed light on migrations of human ancestors, a new study suggests

A fragment of early human bone uncovered in the excavation in Ranis, Germany

Humans and Neanderthals Lived Side by Side in Northern Europe 45,000 Years Ago, Study Finds

Archaeologists identified bone fragments of prehistoric modern humans in Germany, suggesting several millennia of coexistence with Neanderthals before the species disappeared

Genes that significantly increase risk of developing multiple sclerosis were introduced to northwestern Europe by herders who migrated from the east around 5,000 years ago.

Ancient DNA From Eurasian Herders Sheds Light on the Origins of Multiple Sclerosis

Genetic variants linked to the risk of MS were brought to Europe during a migration around 5,000 years ago, a new study finds—and they might have helped herders survive

An artist's depiction of a person carving a pendant from bones of a giant sloth roughly 25,000 to 27,000 years ago. Research this year suggested humans and the sloths lived in Brazil at the same time, strengthening evidence that our ancestors populated the Americas earlier than thought.

Thirteen Discoveries Made About Human Evolution in 2023

Smithsonian paleoanthropologists reveal some of the year’s most fascinating findings about human origins

Neanderthals have held our fascination ever since we first identified their remains.

Here's What We Know About Neanderthals So Far

Today, thanks to new artifacts and technologies, findings about our closest relatives are coming thick and fast

Bonobos from different social groups will groom each other and share food.

Like Humans, Some Bonobos Cooperate With Outsiders

We might not be the only primates to display helpful behavior toward members of a different social group, a new study suggests

An illustration of the Homo erectus child with her mother in the Ethiopian highlands, two million years ago

Two Million Years Ago, This Homo Erectus Lived the High Life

Dating of a child's fossilized jaw and teeth suggest our relatives lived at altitude earlier than once thought

Artistic reconstruction of a group of hominins in direct competition for carrion with a hyena

One Million Years Ago, Our Human Relatives May Have Challenged Giant Hyenas for Carcasses

Groups of hominins might have successfully scavenged large kills, new modeling finds

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