Bonobo communication similar to that of human infants, suggests new study
Researchers from the University of Birmingham (UK) and the University of Neuchatel (Switzerland) have found that wild bonobos, our closest…
Did feminization create modern humans?
Duke University anthropologists have been measuring more than 1,400 ancient and modern skulls, leading them to theorize that modern humans…
Prehistoric token “bookkeeping” persisted long into age of written language
An archaeological dig in Turkey has uncovered a large number of clay tokens that were used as records of trade…
The War on Drugs in 10,000 B.C.
New research published in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory suggests that the use of alcohol and drugs by…
Good Housekeeping, Neanderthal style
Neanderthals were far from primitive in their domestic living arrangements, say anthropologists who have unearthed evidence that our prehistoric cousins…
New evidence for climate change creating modern humans
While archaeological and genetic evidence suggest that Homo sapiens originated in Africa around 200,000 years ago, it is more difficult…
Neanderthal bone reveals modern day affliction
The first-known case of a bone tumor has been discovered in a fragment of the rib of a young Neanderthal…
Torturous terrain behind human bipedal evolution?
Archaeologists at the University of York say challenging terrain could have been the driving force behind our earliest ancestors leaving…
Fossil analysis indicates dinosaurs used feathers for courtship
A University of Alberta scientist says that fossilized dinosaur tail bones provide strong evidence that feathered dinosaurs used tail plumage…
Extinction of dinosaurs a given thanks to fragility of their ecosystem
A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the ecological structure of dinosaur communities…
Early Triassic ocean temp reached 40°C
The end-Permian mass extinction, which occurred around 250 million years ago in the pre-dinosaur era, is believed to have wiped…
Gene mutation behind African migration also responsible for modern health woes
The brain-boosting genetic mutation that allowed primitive man to migrate across the African continent is over-represented in modern-day African Americans…
Double whammy dinosaur extinction theory
Widely credited to have wiped out the dinosaurs, the giant asteroid that smashed into the Yucatán Peninsula 65 million years…
Neanderthal nookie notion nixed
Hybridization, the idea that modern humans and Neanderthals once interbred is probably wrong, say researchers at the University of Cambridge…
Families forged from female food fanciers
A new mathematical simulation shows that the most commonly proposed theories for the emergence of human pair-bonding are not biologically…
Earliest cave art was erotica, say anthropologists
A block of limestone in southwestern France is adorned with what anthropologists believe are engravings of female genitalia dating back…
Dino farts warmed early climate
Mesozoic methane emissions from dinosaurs could, according to new calculations, have produced more of the notorious greenhouse gas than all…
Inch-long fleas tormented dinosaurs
Ten times bigger than their modern cousins, prehistoric flea fossils unearthed by Chinese scientists reveal a proboscis like a hypodermic…
Hoarding may have led to human bipedalism
Detailed observations of chimpanzees indicate that upright walking may have emerged millions of years ago as an adaptation to be…
Chinese fossils may be new human species
Dating from only around 13,000 years ago, fossils from two caves in south-west China have revealed a previously unknown Stone…
Modern man emerged from Middle East, suggests elephantine evidence
The elephant – a huge package of protein that is easy to hunt – disappeared from the Middle East around…
Bashed-in prehistoric skull hints at the invention of violence
A 126,000 year-old human cranium (pictured right) exhibiting signs of localized blunt force trauma could represent the earliest known incident…
Caveman cook calorie kerfuffle corrected
Despite our preoccupation with all things gastronomic, surprising little is known about how food preparation affects the energy it supplies…
Artistic mega-octopus may topple ichthyosaur from top of Triassic food chain
Neatly arranged fossilized vertebrae from a number of bus-sized ichthyosaurs could actually be a self portrait composed by a verylarge…
Modern humans healthier thanks to Neanderthal nookie
Mating with Neanderthals and another close relative – the recently discovered Denisovans – has endowed some human gene pools with…
Scientists identify possible smoking-gun for multicellular life
Researchers have created an analog of what they think the first multicellular cooperation on Earth might have looked like, showing…
Two legs good, four legs bad – for beating the crap out of each other
Men can punch much harder when they stand on two legs and hit downward rather than when they are on…
Clay bubbles may have nurtured self-organizing precursors to life
A team of researchers from Harvard, Princeton, and Brandeis universities have demonstrated how small, semi-permeable compartments that form in inorganic…
Mass extinction event linked to invasive species
The arrival of invasive species can stop the dominant natural process of new species formation and trigger mass extinction events,…