The study of the genomes of our closest relatives, the Neanderthals and Denisovans, has opened up new research paths that can broaden our understanding of the evolutionary history of Homo sapiens. A study led by the University of Barcelona has made an estimation of the time when some of the genetic variants that characterise our…
Read More “When did the genetic variations that make us human emerge?” »
For the first time, researchers successfully sequenced the genome of ancient human fossils from the Late Pleistocene in southern China. The data, published in the journal The lateral view of the skull unearthed from Red Dear Cave [Credit: Xueping Ji] “Ancient DNA technique is a really powerful tool,” Su says. “It tells us quite definitively…
Fossil tooth analysis by Southern Cross University geochemist Dr. Renaud Joannes-Boyau has played a central role in an international collaboration that has properly identified the earliest humans. Dr Renaud Joannes-Boyau with a Homo Naledi tooth [Credit: Southern Cross University] The new study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates that…
Read More “Analysis of fossil tooth brings to light earliest humans from southern Africa” »
Uncovering the evolution of any set of living creatures is a complex and highly detailed task for scientists, and theories and approaches that may differ over time may indeed change the fossil record. But paleoanthropologist and Stony Brook University Professor Carrie S. Mongle, Ph.D., and co-authors urge investigators to take caution on their findings. They…
Read More “Using accurate data when studying Human evolution” »
Archaeologically excavated stone tools – some as much as 2.6 million years old – have been hailed as evidence for an early cultural heritage in human evolution. But are these tools proof that our ancestors were already becoming human, both mentally and culturally? One participant of the study—who was naive to stone tools as well…
Emiliano Bruner, a paleoneurologist at the Centro Nacional de Investigacion sobre la Evolucion Humana (CENIEH), has led a study published in the journal Credit: Emiliano Bruner This work proposes evolutionary changes in attention associated with the origin of the human genus and in Neanderthals, although only with Homo sapiens did this cognitive capacity attain a…
During the past 10,000 years—the Holocene—human societies became larger and ever more complex. An international team of scientists led by Peter Turchin from the Complexity Science Hub Vienna (CSH) set out to test various theories on what drove this process. According to its analyses of data from Seshat: Global History Databank, the best explanation for…
Read More “Theories on socio-political evolution put to the test” »
EPFL scientists have produced a series of maps showing historical migration events, including the migration of mountain farmers native to Upper Valais who began to settle in German-speaking Switzerland in the 13th century, by applying methods from population genetics—but using linguistic data rather than genes. The map shows the relative influence of Upper Valais morphosyntactic…
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Archaeological discoveries made on the outskirts of Canterbury, Kent (England) confirm the presence of early humans in southern Britain between 560,000 and 620,000 years ago, making it one of the earliest known Paleolithic sites in northern Europe. A selection of handaxes discovered in the 1920s [Credit: University of Cambridge] The breakthrough, involving controlled excavations and…
Read More “Canterbury suburbs were home to some of Britain’s earliest humans” »
Scientists at the Centro Nacional de Investigacion sobre la Evolucion Humana (CENIEH) form part of a team of Chinese, Spanish, and French scientists that has just published a study of what may prove to be China’s most ancient human fossil, in the Remains of jawbone and teeth of Gongwangling skull [Credit: Xing Song] This site…
Read More “‘Homo erectus’ from Gongwangling could have been the earliest population in China” »
