Human Origins

The butchered rhino

700,000-Year-Old Butchered Rhino Pushes Back Ancient Human Arrival in the Philippines

The find changes the story of human migration, but scientists still don't know what human species did the cutting

Fossil Tracks May Record Ancient Humans Hunting Giant Sloths

The tracks suggest a human—perhaps in search of food—closely followed the movements of the massive creature

Did a Prehistoric Surgeon Practice on This Cow?

Though an early human likely created the hole, the reason why remains less clear

Human evolution is “one of the highest hurdles — if not the highest hurdle — to science education in America,” says Smithsonian's Rick Potts. Here, an early human fossil found in Broken Hill, Zambia.

How to Talk With Evangelicals About Evolution

For two years, researchers from the Smithsonian traveled the country explaining the science of our shared origins

Expressive Eyebrows May Have Given Modern Humans an Evolutionary Edge

A new study explores why ancient humans had pronounced brow ridges, and why they eventually lost them

Several views of a fossilized finger bone found Al Wusta site, Saudi Arabia.

Rare 85,000-year-old Finger Bone Complicates Our Understanding of African Migration

The fossil builds on the theory that humans left Africa in multiple waves, and suggests they made it as far as the Arabian Desert

These black- and red-colored pigments reveal that humans were using pigments, potentially to communicate status or identity, by around 300,000 years ago.

Colored Pigments and Complex Tools Suggest Humans Were Trading 100,000 Years Earlier Than Previously Believed

Transformations in climate and landscape may have spurred these key technological innovations

Ancient Humans Weathered the Toba Supervolcano Just Fine

New studies suggest the largest eruption in the last 2 million years didn't push humanity to the edge of extinction as previously hypothesized

Cave art found in India

Did Cave Acoustics Play a Role in the Development of Language?

In a new paper, researchers hypothesize that the location of cave art and sounds early humans heard might be linked

Close-up view of the of jawbone, showing details of the crown topography and dental features.

Earliest Human Remains Outside Africa Were Just Discovered in Israel

If accepted as <i>Homo sapien</i>, the jaw-dropping jawbone would push back the human exodus out of Africa by nearly 100,000 years

The rock from the Apex Chert in which the fossils were found

At 3.5 Billion Years Old, Are These the Oldest Fossils?

A new analysis of this decades-old find suggests that they were indeed once biological life—but not all are convinced

Little Foot, the Most Complete Australopithecus Fossil, Goes on Display

After 20 years of excavation and cleaning, the 3.67-million year old hominin is ready for her closeup

A bit of 3.95 billion-year-old graphite locked in quartz

This May Be the Oldest Traces of Life Yet Found

Bits of graphite, 3.95 billion years old, suggest life was churning away soon after Earth's formation

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

Experiments Show How Neanderthals Made the First Glue

Archaeologists tested three methods the early hominins could have used to get tar from birch bark

The skeletal remains found in a Mexican cave before their looting

Skeleton Stolen From Underwater Cave in Mexico Was One of Americas' Oldest

A new study shows that the human remains looted in 2012 are more than 13,000 years old

This slimy green algae is far more complex than the type that helped fuel the formation of modern creatures, but it's a distant relative.

How Microscopic Algae Kick-Started Life As We Know It

Some 650 million years ago, algae took over the seas, which may have been a needed spark in the formation of complex life

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

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

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