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Bones

A Sickly Paleolithic Pupper Only Survived Because of Human Help

The canine wouldn’t have been a good hunter, hinting early humans may have loved their pets for more than athleticism

Cool Finds

Is This St. Nicolas’ Pelvis Bone?

Oxford researchers have determined that a bone fragment purportedly from St. Nicholas comes from the same century in which he died

New Research

How Clogs Damaged the Feet of 19th-Century Dutch Farmers

A study of 132 skeletons revealed bone chips associated with a rare condition

The Aitape skull

New Research

This Ancient Skull May Have Belonged to The World’s Oldest Tsunami Victim

A new study says Papua New Guinea’s Aitape skull is from someone who died in a massive ocean wave 6,000 years ago

New Research

Shrews Shrink Their Skulls and Brains for the Winter

The tiny animal have some surprising reactions to the changing seasons

Mike deRoos and Michi Main rebuild skeletons of marine mammals for their company Cetacea. Here, deRoos adjusts a blue whale chevron bone placement.

Art Meets Science

How to Give Dead Animals a Second Life: The Art of Skeleton Articulation

Mike deRoos and Michi Main build beautiful models from the remains of Pacific sea creatures

Jennifer Zetlan who plays Rhoda in "Rhoda and the Fossil Hunt"

Family Travel

Watch a Dinosaur Opera at New York’s American Museum of Natural History

Sink your teeth into the family friendly “Rhoda and the Fossil Hunt”

Austria

This Austrian Ossuary Holds Hundreds of Elaborately Hand-Painted Skulls

Step inside Europe’s largest intact collection of painted remains

This reconstruction of the grave site shows how the woman may have originally looked.

New Research

This High-Ranking Viking Warrior Was a Woman

DNA analysis shows that the elaborate grave of what appears to be a Viking officer was a real-life shieldmaiden

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

Brawling was one of the few ways available to settle disputes among lower-class Londoners, potentially leading to injuries and deaths

Medieval Graveyards Unearth London’s Violent Past

A new analysis of hundreds of ancient skulls shows how often violent trauma affected the poor and the rich

The fossil was found to actually comprise bones of three living penguin species, including the Snares crested penguin.

This ‘Extinct’ Penguin Likely Never Existed in the First Place

DNA analysis helps untangle the species behind a jumble of bone fragments

An ancient knee joint that shows signs of grinding between the bones, a result of osteoarthritis

New Research

What a 6,000-Year-Old Knee Can Teach Us About Arthritis

By studying bones dating back thousands of years, researchers find that the disease may not be just a part of getting old

William Maples holds a bone fragment during a presentation about the Romanov Investigations, circa 1992.

William R. Maples Popularized Forensic Anthropology Long Before CSI

Maples worked on a number of high-profile cases that helped to bring the field of forensic anthropology to prominence

Christina Gebhard prepares to measure a condor's wingspan

Behind the Scenes: Skinning Condors in the Name of Science

One intrepid reporter documents the careful science, artistry and gross factor of a very strange party

The Hohlenstein-Stadel femur

New Research

Humans May Have Bred With Neanderthals Much Earlier Than Previously Thought

DNA from a Neanderthal femur is offering new clues to ancient interactions

The Huey Tzompantli

Cool Finds

Aztec “Skull Tower” Contains Remains of Women and Children

The tzompantli were once believed to only contain the skulls of conquered male warriors

The statues and carvings from Gobekli Tepe were found with fragments of carved skull from thousands of years ago.

New Research

Unprecedented Carved Skulls Discovered at a Stone Age Temple in Turkey

Three carved skull fragments from Gobekli Tepe offer tantalizing hints about the lives of Neolithic people

Ancient DNA revolutionized archaeology. Now, researchers think they can use it to create a GPS system for the remains of the long-dead.

New Research

Ancient DNA Could Unravel the Mystery of Prehistoric European Migration

New research pinpoints the geographic origins of ancient Eurasians, showing how the continent’s population changed

This spine is the earliest intact reference for how humans' skeletons may have developed.

New Research

This 3.3-Million-Year-Old Hominin Toddler Was Kind of Like Us

Analysis of the ancient spine reveals tantalizing similarities—and questions about human evolution

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