If Homo floresiensis wasn’t a fire-using hunter, its origins could be different than we thought. Komodo dragons use their venomous […]
Category: anthropology
Every Homo naledi we know of is female, and the implications are fascinating
“There is no natural explanation,” says paleoanthropologist John Hawks. Neo, the type specimen for Homo naledi, was originally thought to […]
Neanderthals drilled cavities to treat a toothache 59,000 years ago
Two of the teeth were museum specimens, whose age and context curators didn’t know, making them less useful for other […]
Neanderthal brains measure up to ours—literally
(When we talk about “intelligence,” we’re describing something complex and, frankly, sort of nebulous; it’s impossible to really quantify, but […]
Ugandan chimps split into two factions, then killed rivals
Even those factors might not have been sufficient, but the authors also identified three possible catalysts. In 2014, five adult […]
Ice Age dice show early Native Americans may have understood probability
Madden was able to conclusively identify 565 Native American dice from 45 different sites and designate an additional 94 artifacts […]
Monte Verde site gets a new date, but the big picture doesn’t change
layers of debate (and debate about layers) Monte Verde site gets a new date, but the big picture doesn’t change […]
Never mind Band-Aids, Neanderthals had antiseptic birch tar
Our view of Neanderthal life keeps getting more complex and vibrant. This replica shows how Neanderthals might have used birch […]
Re-creating the complex cuisine of prehistoric Europeans
The results: The team found traces of wild grasses and legumes, fruits or berries, green vegetables, and roots and tubers […]
“Million-year-old” fossil skulls from China are far older—and not Denisovans
careful with that, it’s an antique The revised age may help make sense of 2-million-year-old stone tools elsewhere in China. […]