Human Origins

A jawbone from one of the fossils of the earliest Homo sapiens ever found.

Humans Evolved 100,000 Years Earlier Than We Thought—But Mysteries Remain

Moroccan fossil discovery alters the accepted narrative of when humans evolved and how they spread through Africa

View looking south of the Jebel Irhoud site in Morocco, where the fossils were found

The Science Behind the Discovery of the Oldest Homo Sapien

We need both genetics and anthropology to solve the mysteries of human origins, says a researcher on the team

Terrace rice fields in Yunnan Province, China.

Domestic Rice Was Grown in China 9,400 Years Ago

A new study offers evidence that prehistoric villages in the area of Shangshan were growing half-domesticated rice

The El Graeco jawbone

Controversial Study Claims Apes and Human Ancestors Split in Southern Europe

Researchers believe these 7.2-million-year-old teeth have a lot to say about human evolution

The skull of Neo, one of the bodies found in the Lesedi Chamber

Ancient Human Cousin May Have Lived Alongside Early Homo Sapiens

<i>Homo naledi</i> may have been much younger—and more advanced—than previously thought

Handprint from Maltravieso Cave in Caceres, Spain.

Project Is Making 3D Scans of Ancient Handprints

The Handpas Project is looking to unlock who made the prehistoric art and why

Vindija Cave in Croatia where some of the samples were collected

Scientists Extract DNA From Ancient Humans Out of Cave Dirt

The new technique promises to transform the study of the hominid family tree

The surface of mastodon bone showing half impact notch on a segment of femur.

Remarkable New Evidence for Human Activity in North America 130,000 Years Ago

Researchers say prehistoric mastodon bones bear human-made markings

Homo floresiensis

The "Hobbits" Could Be Much Older Than Once Thought

The Flores hobbits' ancestor may have ventured out of Africa much earlier than previously thought

In 1950, Tollund Man’s discoverers “found a face so fresh they could only suppose they had stumbled on a recent murder.”

Europe's Famed Bog Bodies Are Starting to Reveal Their Secrets

High-tech tools divulge new information about the mysterious and violent fates met by these corpses

Reconstruction of the Tham Lod woman who lived 13,600 years ago

Researchers Work to Take the Bias Out Of Facial Reconstruction

Instead of relying on European-centric data sets, researchers used a global database to help image a 13,600-year-old woman from Thailand

Computer-assisted reconstruction of the cavities

13,000-Year-Old Fillings Were “Drilled” With Stone and Packed With Tar

You can't handle the tooth

Don't worry: It's beef.

New Study Fleshes Out the Nutritional Value of Human Meat

The caloric value of the human body is surprisingly low compared to other prehistoric food options

Artifacts Found in Indonesian Cave Show Complexities of Ice Age Culture

Pendants and buttons as well as carvings suggest the inhabitants of Wallacea were as advanced as Europeans during the Ice Age

Paleo diet? Not so much. Thanks to Neanderthal dental plaque, researchers are getting a much better idea of what our ancestors actually dined on.

Scientists Delve Into Neanderthal Dental Plaque to Understand How They Lived and Ate

The plaque that coated Neanderthal teeth is shedding new light on how our ancestors ate, self-medicated and interacted with humans

The 38,000-year-old woolly mammoth carving next to Georges Seurat's "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte." Despite the vast amount of time between their respective creations, both use a collection of dots to form a larger image.

Prehistoric Pointillism? Long Before Seurat, Ancient Artists Chiseled Mammoths Out of Dots

Newly discovered 38,000-year-old cave art predates the French post-Impressionist art form

An artist's recreation of what the ancient creature looked like.

Bag-Like, Big-Mouthed Sea Creature Could Be Earliest Human Ancestor

This minute wriggly sea blob could represent some of the earliest steps along the path of evolution

The limestone carving of an aurochs

Dig This: Researchers Found a 38,000-Year-Old Engraving in France

Excavated from a rock shelter, the image of an aurochs covered in dots was made by the Aurignacians, the earliest group of modern humans in Europe

The horse mandible marked by traces of stone tools, which might prove humans came to North American 10,000 years earlier than previously believed.

Humans May Have Arrived in North America 10,000 Years Earlier Than We Thought

A 24,000-year-old horse jawbone is helping rewrite our understanding of human habitation on the continent

Mouse embryo growing rat heart cells

Human-Pig Chimeras Created for the First Time

The hybrid embryos are the first step in interspecies organ transplants

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