The text discusses the cultural materials from Tinshemet Cave, Israel, and the new excavations that began at the site in 2017. It reports the excavation layers both inside and outside the cave date to the period between 130,000 an...
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Hi, I'm John Hawks. I'm a paleoanthropologist, exploring the ancient world of humans and fossil human relatives. I write about the science of human origins, and how our ancient past can help make sense of today's world.
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The journal eLife released a new editorial evaluation of the team's work on burial evidence from Homo naledi. The reviews and editorial assessment are positive, suggesting important lingering questions for follow-up work. The rese...
The text discusses the surprising findings of a study that revealed around 25% of people in China inherited a haplotype from Neandertals that may help them to digest milk when they are adults. The study also explores lactase persi...
The text discusses the discovery of a fragmentary facial skeleton, designated as ATE7-1, at Sima del Elefante in Spain, dating to an estimated 1.4-1.1 million years ago. The fossil is compared to Homo erectus and Homo antecessor, ...
The text discusses the methods used by scientists to determine the diet of ancient human relatives, focusing on the trophic level and meat consumption of Australopithecus africanus. It explains the challenges of measuring nitrogen...
The Ancestors: Four Million Years of Humanity exhibit in 1984 brought together significant fossils of human relatives from thirteen countries, sparking scientific and public triumph but also controversy. The exhibit faced politica...
The text discusses the archaeological site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov in Israel, which preserves evidence of ancient hominins living 780,000 years ago. The site has preserved abundant evidence of plant remains, including some that we...
The text discusses a new paper describing evidence of ancient people using something like a travois up to 22,000 years ago at White Sands National Park in New Mexico. The work includes remarkable images and scans of the tracks, an...
The NESPOS project undertook the microCT scanning of all of the teeth from the rockshelter on the Hušnjakovo hill near Krapina, Croatia. The project supported the Croatian photographer Luka Mjeda, who provided standardized views o...
The text discusses the study of ancient immune dynamics and the evidence for selection associated with the Black Death. It highlights the work of Jennifer Klunk, Tauras Vilgalys, and coworkers on genetic markers associated with pl...
The text discusses a reanalysis of the Taung endocranial surface, providing valuable information about the size and shape of the brain in this individual. It compares the endocast with large samples of living hominids and provides...
The text discusses the locomotor capabilities of Homo naledi, highlighting that it had long legs and small joints, similar to modern humans. The research aims to understand how the movement styles of H. naledi may have fit within ...
The text discusses the Taung discovery in South Africa, which was a significant event in science. It talks about the circumstances of the discovery, the academic fable surrounding it, and the myths and misconceptions associated wi...
Two studies of Neandertal mixture into ancestral humans placed the tightest-ever constraint upon the timing of modern human dispersal around the world. The evidence is contradictory, pointing towards a more interesting set of inte...
The text discusses the Maba 1 hominin skull, found in a cave in China, and its significance in understanding the hominin population of China. It also talks about the recent work by Guanjun Shen and collaborators in 2014, which cha...
The text discusses the contribution of segmental duplications to human diversity. It explains that genomes of people around the world are much alike at the small scale, but have large portions that are duplicated, inverted, or del...
0A look at the fossil skull from Steinheim
2025-01-06 •
The text discusses the discovery of a fossil skull in Steinheim, Germany, in 1933, and its significance in understanding human evolution in Europe. It describes the professional recovery and preparation of the skull, its age, and ...
The year 2024 has brought significant discoveries about ancient people from DNA, including rapid natural selection, complex speciation, and a single pulse of Neandertal ancestry. The fast-growing sample of genome data from ancient...
0A sad end for the Journal of Human Evolution
2024-12-28 •
The editorial board of the Journal of Human Evolution has resigned due to conflicts with Elsevier, the publishing conglomerate that owns the journal. The editors claim that AI tools used in Elsevier's production process have consi...
The blog post discusses the investigation of an apparent archaeological scandal in Germany, where a partial skull once identified as a 160,000-year-old Neanderthal may be less than one percent of that age. The author emphasizes th...
0When hominins walked in each others' tracks
2024-12-03 •
The blog post discusses the recent discoveries of ancient footprint trackways of hominins, particularly from Koobi Fora, Kenya, around 1.5 million years old. The research team analyzed the prints and determined that the trackway w...
0“Lucy”, superstar of evolution, at fifty
2024-11-24 •
The blog post discusses the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of the 'Lucy' skeleton, a famous Australopithecus afarensis fossil. It explores various aspects of Lucy's life, death, and her significance in the field of paleoant...
0A look at the Neanderthal from Altamura
2024-11-04 •
The blog post discusses the Neanderthal skeleton found near Altamura, Italy, and the scientific studies conducted on it. The skeleton is one of the most complete Neanderthal skeletons ever identified and has been the subject of va...
The blog post discusses the recent publication of the 'Thorin' genome from Grotte Mandrin, France, which reveals new insights into the genetic diversity of late Neanderthals. Contrary to popular headlines suggesting long-term isol...