Human Origins

The Pleistocene world was filled with megafauna like woolly mammoths and saber-tooth cats. Did humans kill them all off?

Are Humans to Blame for the Disappearance of Earth’s Fantastic Beasts?

100,000 years ago, giant sloths, wombats and cave hyenas roamed the world. What drove them all extinct?

Axe head and grindstone found at Madjedbebe

Humans May Have Ventured Into Australia 20,000 Years Earlier Than Thought

High-tech dating of sediments at an Australian rock shelter offers insights into ancient human migration

Two views of the curvy "Venus of Hohle Fels."

World's Oldest Figurative Art is Now an Official World Treasure

The new Unesco world heritage site spans six caves located in the Swabian Alps in Germany

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 Hohlenstein-Stadel femur

Humans May Have Bred With Neanderthals Much Earlier Than Previously Thought

DNA from a Neanderthal femur is offering new clues to ancient interactions

Ancient DNA revolutionized archaeology. Now, researchers think they can use it to create a GPS system for the remains of the long-dead.

Ancient DNA Could Unravel the Mystery of Prehistoric European Migration

New research pinpoints the geographic origins of ancient Eurasians, showing how the continent’s population changed

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

Terrace rice fields in Yunnan Province, China.

Domestic Rice Was Grown in China 9,400 Years Ago

A new study offers evidence that prehistoric villages in the area of Shangshan were growing half-domesticated rice

The El Graeco jawbone

Controversial Study Claims Apes and Human Ancestors Split in Southern Europe

Researchers believe these 7.2-million-year-old teeth have a lot to say 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

Handprint from Maltravieso Cave in Caceres, Spain.

Project Is Making 3D Scans of Ancient Handprints

The Handpas Project is looking to unlock who made the prehistoric art and why

Vindija Cave in Croatia where some of the samples were collected

Scientists Extract DNA From Ancient Humans Out of Cave Dirt

The new technique promises to transform the study of the hominid family tree

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

In 1950, Tollund Man’s discoverers “found a face so fresh they could only suppose they had stumbled on a recent murder.”

Europe's Famed Bog Bodies Are Starting to Reveal Their Secrets

High-tech tools divulge new information about the mysterious and violent fates met by these corpses

Reconstruction of the Tham Lod woman who lived 13,600 years ago

Researchers Work to Take the Bias Out Of Facial Reconstruction

Instead of relying on European-centric data sets, researchers used a global database to help image a 13,600-year-old woman from Thailand

Computer-assisted reconstruction of the cavities

13,000-Year-Old Fillings Were “Drilled” With Stone and Packed With Tar

You can't handle the tooth

Don't worry: It's beef.

New Study Fleshes Out the Nutritional Value of Human Meat

The caloric value of the human body is surprisingly low compared to other prehistoric food options

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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