Human Origins

Comparison of Modern Human and Neanderthal skulls from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Ancient Teeth With Neanderthal Features Reveal New Chapters of Human Evolution

The 450,000-year-old teeth, discovered on the Italian Peninsula, are helping anthropologists piece together the hominid family tree

People Braved Australia's Western Desert Roughly 45,000 Years Ago

Newly dated artifacts from a rock shelter show humans were in the inhospitable Little Sandy Desert at least 10,000 years earlier than previously thought

Scientists analyzed 3D scans of entheses, or scars left at points where muscle attaches to bone

Neanderthals Used Their Hands for Precision, Not Just Power

Researchers suggest that the early human ancestors’ hand usage places them in line with tailors, painters rather than brute-force laborers

Climate Change Likely Iced Neanderthals Out Of Existence

Climate records gathered from stalagmites in Romanian caves show two extremely cold dry periods correspond with the disappearance of Neanderthals

The tiny arm or leg fragment belonged to Denisova 11, a 13-year-old hybrid hominin

Meet Denisova 11: First Known Hybrid Hominin

The 13-year-old girl’s mother was a Neanderthal while her father was a Denisovan

Study suggests that early humans had opposable, ape-like big toes built for grasping

Researchers Suggest Big Toe Was Last Part of Foot to Evolve

Early hominins' big toes were equipped for life on the ground and in the trees

Early humans made stone tools out of whichever rocks happened to be lying nearby, ignoring quality in favor of convenience

Laziness May Have Contributed to the Decline of Homo Erectus

Researchers suggest early humans pursued “least-effort strategies” when crafting tools, collecting resources

Study Suggests Neanderthals Sparked Their Own Fire

Hand-axe wear suggests our hominid cousins used flint and pyrite to unleash Prometheus' gift

Behaviors requiring the most pressure were smashing bones for marrow and producing flint flakes

Did the Human Hand Evolve as a Lean Mean Bone-Smashing Machine?

Of nearly 40 things Pleistocene people might have done with their hands, getting to yummy marrow requires the most force and dexterity

Oldest Stone Tools Outside Africa Unearthed in China

Six artifacts date to 2.1 million years ago, potentially rewriting what we know about which species led the migration out of Africa

Pink Was the First Color of Life on Earth

Researchers have found bright pink pigments in 1.1 billion year old fossils of cyanobacteria drilled in West Africa

The foot bones of an Australopithecus Afarensis toddler show that the species retained some ape-like traits.

Ancient Toddler Was at Home on the Ground and in the Trees

The foot of a 2.5-year-old Austrolopithecus afarensis shows it had a grippy big toe that let it cling to its mom and climb tree trunks

Coming together for a solstice feast in ancient Peru.

How Feasting Rituals Help Shape Human Civilization

These transformative practices—and the cooperation they require—are a cornerstone of societies the world over

Contrary to popular beliefs, Neanderthals lived in complex societies and hunted prey cooperatively.

Neanderthals Hunted in Groups, One More Strike Against the Dumb Brute Myth

The skeletons of deer killed 120,000 years ago offer more evidence of cooperative behavior and risk-taking among our hominin relatives

New Evidence Shows That Humans Could Have Migrated to the Americas Along the Coast

Dating of rocks and animal bones shows Alaska's coast was glacier free around 17,000 years ago, allowing people to move south along the coast

The Startling Alternative Theory of How Humans Arrived in America

On an island off the east coast of Maryland, a stone spearpoint sticking out of a coastal cliff stuns archaeologists

Terrifying Mammals That May Have Greeted Early Humans in America

Arriving in the Chesapeake Bay, the early American inhabitants' first order of business would have been to craft weapons to defend themselves

Archaeologists Uncover 20,000-Year-Old Kangaroo Cook Out

The site in Pilbara is one of many helping to define human movements in Australia

Panga ya Saidi

People Lived in This Cave for 78,000 Years

Excavations in Panga ya Saidi suggest technological and cultural change came slowly over time and show early humans weren't reliant on coastal resources

Though the differences between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens may seem pronounced, scientists didn't always embrace the idea that humans evolved from other species.

How Do Scientists Identify New Species? For Neanderthals, It Was All About Timing and Luck

Even the most remarkable fossil find means nothing if scientists aren’t ready to see it for what it is

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