ancient humans

New Evidence Bolsters Theory That First Americans Arrived by the Pacific Coast

Archaeological evidence excavated in western Idaho suggests humans were in the region well over 15,000 years ago—prior to the opening of the massive ice sheets that blocked entrance into North America via the Bering land bridge. It’s further evidence that the continent’s first people arrived by traveling along the Pacific coast. Prior to the Late…

Astonishing Denisovan Fossil Discovery Traced Back to Buddhist Monk

The archaeology world is abuzz today with news of the first Denisovan fossil found outside of Siberia. The 160,000-year-old jawbone was uncovered by a Buddhist monk in a Chinese cave nearly 40 years ago—an aspect of this story that’s as intriguing as it is frustrating. To quickly recap this breaking news, a partial jaw bone…

Jawbone Fossil Reveals More About the Denisovans, a Mysterious Species that Mated With Modern Humans

In 2010, archaeologists found evidence of a previously unknown hominin, the Denisovans, in a Siberian cave. Researchers are now reporting the discovery of a 160,000-year-old Denisovan jawbone pulled from a cave on the Tibetan Plateau. The fossil is now the first evidence of this mysterious human species outside of Siberia, and the earliest evidence of…

We Can Thank Agriculture and Soft Food for the ‘F’ Word, Claims Provocative New Study

Humans couldn’t always easily produce “f” and “v” sounds, according to a surprising new study. The reason we can now enjoy words like “flavor” and “effervescent,” say the researchers, has to do with changes to the ancestral human diet and the introduction of soft foods—a development that altered the way we bite, and by consequence,…

Neanderthals and Denisovans Shared a Siberian Cave for Thousands of Years, New Research Suggests

Denisova cave in southern Siberia was home to Neanderthals and Denisovans for thousands of years, but questions remain about the timing of their stay. A pair of new studies traces the history of archaic human occupation at the site, showing who lived there and when—including a possible era during which the two now-extinct species hung…

88,000-Year-Old Middle Finger Found in Saudi Arabia Could Rewrite Human History

It’s just a lone, boney middle finger, but the scientists who found it say it’s the oldest directly dated fossil of our species to ever be found outside of Africa and the Levant, a region that today comprises Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. But the new discovery is not without its critics, who say older…

Ancient Climate Swings Forced Early Humans to Get Their Shit Together and Innovate

Our species made its debut some 300,000 years ago. During the preceding millenniums, our continent of origin underwent environmental shifts that very likely influenced the trajectory of human evolution. Archaeologists working in Kenya have uncovered new clues to support this assertion, showing the surprising extent to which climate change influenced the behavior of early humans…

Ancient Human Groups Mated With the Mysterious Denisovans at Least Twice

Genetic analysis suggests two populations of Denisovans—an extinct group of hominids closely related to Neanderthals—existed outside of Africa during the Pleistocene, and that both of these populations interacted and interbred with anatomically modern humans. Virtually everyone knows about Neanderthals, but very few of us know about their distant cousins, the Denisovans. These extinct hominids were…

These Early Humans Prospered During What Should Have Been a Devastating Volcanic Winter

Around 74,000 years ago, a massive caldera erupted on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, triggering a prolonged and devastating volcanic winter. Scientists have speculated that the Toba eruption pruned back human populations to a considerable degree, but new research published today suggests at least one group of humans living in southern Africa not only managed…

Incredible Discovery Pushes Back Origin of Homo Sapiens By 100,000 Years

The remains of five early Homo sapiens have been unearthed at a site in northwest Africa. At around 300,000 years old, the fossils are a whopping 100,000 years older than the previous record, pushing back the origin of our species by a significant margin. And because the fossils were uncovered in Morocco—far from the supposed…

Controversial Study Makes a Staggering Claim About When the First Humans Settled North America

In a study that’s already attracting considerable controversy, a research team says it has found evidence of human habitation along the southern coast of California dating back an astounding 130,000 years. That’s ten times older than most estimates, and a complete upending of what we thought we knew about how and when humans first arrived…

Ancient Humans Didn’t Turn to Cannibalism For the Calories

Humans have been eating other humans since the beginning of time, but the motivations behind this macabre practice are complex and often unclear. Some anthropologists say prehistoric cannibals were just trying to grab a nutritious snack, but new research shows that human flesh—as tasty as it is—doesn’t pack the same caloric punch as wild animals.…

We Were Wrong About How Ancient Humans Colonized North America

It’s a veritable certainty that North America’s first people arrived via the Bering Land Bridge, but less certainty exists about how and where they migrated from there. For years, scientists thought they had travelled along an ice-free corridor in western Canada, but new research suggests this was impossible. At the end of the most recent…

Cancer Has Been a Deadly Problem For Longer Than We Thought

Two recent recent discoveries, of a 1.7 million-year-old cancerous foot bone and a 2 million-year-old vertebrae ravaged by tumors, show that cancer has been bothering us for a while. So it’s not strictly a modern disease. Researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg discovered the 1.7 million-year-old cancerous foot in South Africa’s…

Ancestral Remains of Mysterious ‘Hobbit’ Species Uncovered on Indonesian Island

Bones and teeth belonging to the ancestors of the short-statured human lineage known as “the Hobbits” have been discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores. The fossils, which date back 700,000 years, are offering fresh insights into the origin of this mysterious species. In two new papers in Nature, researchers from Australia’s University of Wollongong…

Newly-Discovered, Ancient Humans Were Tree-Climbers Who Walked and Used Tools

Last month in South Africa, scientists announced the discovery of a new group of early humans called Homo naledi. Now an analysis shows that this hominin had hands capable of both tree climbing and tool use, plus feet that were adapted for walking upright. The remains of the extinct hominin were discovered in the Dinaledi…

Newly presented evidence shows that early humans interbred with Neanderthals, Denisovans, and now, shockingly, a fourth undocumented hominid species. The paleoarchaeologists who made the discovery are now saying that ancient Eurasia was a “Lord of the Rings-type world,” a landmass containing many hominid populations. As to the identity of the new species, scientists haven’t the…

Toothpicks have been around for 1.8 million years

A recent analysis of well-preserved jaws shows that hominids have been using toothpicks for a long time. A really long time. The jaws, or mandibles, were discovered in the Dmanisi Republic of Georgia, and they belong to the earliest proto-humans to ever venture outside of Africa. They’re now referred to as Homo erectus georgicus, and…

“Stone breadcrumbs” reveal humans who left Africa over 100,000 years ago

Until recently, scientists thought humans first left Africa between forty and seventy thousand years ago. But the archaeological record keeps painting a far different, more ancient picture, one that took humans deep into the Arabian peninsula 100,000 years ago. The 40,000 to 70,000 year estimate comes from genetic evidence, which suggests all living humans are…

16,500 year old cemetery reveals the pets we kept before dogs

A burial site recently uncovered in Jordan is the oldest ever discovered in the Middle East, at least 1,500 years older than any other cemetery previously discovered. But it’s not just its great age that makes it special – the cemetery also reveals what animals humans kept as pets long before the domestication of dogs.…