Hominids

An artist’s rendition of a group of Neanderthals living in a mountainous region of Eurasia.

Neanderthals: Made for Mountaineering?

Neanderthals' short legs made them well-suited for walking in mountain environments

An abalone shell recovered from Blombos Cave and a grindstone covered in red ochre.

The Earliest Known Artist’s Studio

The discovery of a 100,000-year-old art studio in Africa hints at when modern human behavior emerged

The Taung Child was killed by an eagle about three million years ago.

How Africa Became the Cradle of Humankind

A fossil discovery in 1924 revolutionized the search for human ancestors, leading scientists to Africa

Skeletons of Australopithecus sediba (left and right) compared to Lucy (center), or Australopithecus afarensis

Welcome to Hominid Hunting

Smithsonian's newest blog tracks the latest developments in the field of human evolution

In 1961, HAM the chimpanzee became the first upright hominid to go into space. After his death in 1983, he was interred at the New Mexico Museum of Space History.

Famous Animal Gravesites Around the World

It's not just Kentucky Derby winners that are buried with great honor

Ancient meditation might have strengthened the mind's ability to connect symbols and meanings, eventually causing gene mutations that favored modern memory.

Meditate on It

Could ancient campfire rituals have separated us from Neanderthals?

Anthropologists recently found fossils of Paranthropus robustus, also called robust australopithecines, in an excavation site in South Africa. Paranthropus coexisted with human ancestors Homo habilis and Homo erectus as recently as 1.5 million years ago. Some anthropologists had believed that Paranthropus' limited diet caused its extinction, but new evidence from the fossils suggests that Paranthropus had a varied diet that included both hard and soft plants as well as herbivores.

Teeth Tales

Fossils tell a new story about the diversity of hominid diets

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