Are you a morning person? You may be a Neanderthal descendant. A new paper in Genome Biology and Evolution, published by Oxford University Press, finds that genetic material from Neanderthal ancestors may have contributed to the propensity of some people today to be “early risers,” the sort of people who are more comfortable getting up and … Read more
Unexpected Discovery 130,000-Year-Old Neanderthal Stone Tools In Poland Archaeologists working in Racibórz have discovered stone products from at least 130,000 years ago. These are the oldest traces of human presence in the foreground of the Moravian Gate and a proof that Neanderthals visited this region several times, leaving stone products at the bottom of the … Read more
Neanderthals Inherited At Least 6% Of Their Genome From A Now-Extinct Lineage Of Early Modern Humans Modern humans migrated to Eurasia 75,000 years ago, where they encountered and interbred with Neanderthals. A new study published in the journal Current Biology shows that at this time Neanderthals were already carrying human DNA from a much older encounter with … Read more
Ancient Skull Discovery in China Points to Possible New Species of Human Scientists believe they may have identified a new species of human after finding an ancient skull that belonged to a child who lived up to 300,000 years ago. The fossilised remains, which included a jaw, skull, and leg bones, were discovered in Hualongdong, China in 2019. … Read more
300,000-year-old double-pointed stick among oldest record of human-made wooden tools A finely crafted hunting weapon produced by an ancient hominid species sheds new light on the surprising woodworking abilities of our extinct ancestors. Analyzing the killing tool using a series of imaging techniques, researchers have revealed how the manufacturer of the 300,000-year-old object selected and … Read more
New evidence of plant food processing in Italy during Neanderthal-to-Homo sapiens period Long before the invention of agriculture, humans already knew how to process cereals and other wild plants into a flour suitable for food—and now there’s new evidence they did so long before scientists was previously thought. Published in Quaternary Science Reviews, an Italian-led study … Read more
Unlocking Human Ancestry: Surprising Insights from the Broken Hill Skull and Homo Heidelbergensis The evolution of our species is a fascinating and complicated subject. Scientists often discuss our long-gone relatives, the Neanderthals, and some studies attempt to unravel the truth about the intriguing Denisovans. There are also other ground-breaking discoveries that can shed more light … Read more
Southern Spain’s Nerja Cave Reveals Over 40,000 Years of Continuous Human Visits and Palaeolithic Art A cave in southern Spain has been continuously visited by humans for over 40,000 years, new research has revealed. After analyzing charcoal and soot left by the torches that have lit the cavern since time immemorial, the study authors confirmed … Read more
Exploring Neanderthal Occupation and Resource Exploitation: A Spatial Analysis of Navalmaíllo Rock Shelter Site Abel Moclán, a predoctoral researcher attached to the Universidad de Burgos (UBU), the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), and the Institute of Evolution in Africa (IDEA), is the lead author of a paper published in the journal Archaeological … Read more
Ancient DNA puts a face on the mysterious Denisovans, extinct cousins of Neanderthals Researchers have been able to bring the now-extinct cousins of Homo sapiens, the Denisovans, back to life (of sorts)—offering us the first glimpse at what these little-understood hominids would have looked like tens of thousands of years after they went extinct. Up … Read more