A recent study published in the journal L’anthropologie provides new data on one of the most fascinating mysteries of human evolution: how we developed mathematical thinking, that is, the ability to think in numbers. The research explores how our ancestors, from the earliest hominins to Homo sapiens, built the biological and cultural foundations that allow […]
Human Evolution
Posted inScience
Historic Discovery: The Harbin Skull Solves the Mystery of What the Denisovans Looked Like
Over the past fifteen years, since the first remains of the Denisovans were discovered in the Denisova Cave in Siberia, one question has obsessed paleoanthropologists and geneticists alike: what did this group of hominins, whose genes still persist in present-day populations of East Asia and Oceania, physically look like? The scarcity of fossils—limited until now […]
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Neanderthals Spread Across Eurasia Following Rivers and Warm Climate, Reaching the Denisovans in Less Than 2,000 Years
A recent anthropological analysis explains how Neanderthals spread from Eastern Europe to the vast regions of Central and Eastern Eurasia between 120,000 and 60,000 years ago. The scarcity of archaeological sites linking both areas had kept the details of this migration in the dark, but now, through computer simulations, a team of researchers has reconstructed […]
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Babies from Two Million Years Ago Reveal a Common Ancestor to All Human Species Prior to the Quaternary Period
Thanks to a study that analyzed fossilized fragments of baby jaws dating back two million years, scientists are rewriting the beginnings of human history. The study, led by José Braga, a professor at the University of Toulouse, and Jacopo Moggi-Cecchi of the University of Florence, was published in Nature Communications, revealing a much greater diversity […]
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For the first time, scientists manage to identify the biological sex of human ancestors from two million years ago
A team of European and African researchers used a method known as paleoproteomics to recover fragments of proteins from the tooth enamel of four fossilized teeth found in the Swartkrans cave in South Africa, which belonged to an early human called Paranthropus robustus. They used cutting-edge mass spectrometry techniques to partially reconstruct the sequences of […]
Posted inScience, Stone Age Archaeology
Precise Timeline Reconstructed for When Denisovans, Neanderthals, and Homo sapiens Inhabited Denisova Cave Over 300,000 Years
In the Altai Mountains, in southern Siberia, lies the famous Denisova Cave, the only place in the world where the presence of three distinct types of humans has been demonstrated: Neanderthals, Denisovans, and modern humans. A new study, published in Nature Communications, has managed to reconstruct in unprecedented detail the complete history of the cave […]
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The Ear of Neanderthals Reveals That Their Enigmatic Origin Was Not Caused by a Drastic Loss of Genetic Diversity
A recent study on the anatomy of the inner ear of Neanderthals and their ancestors has cast doubt on the widely accepted hypothesis that their lineage emerged following an event of drastic reduction in genetic diversity. This finding, published in the journal Nature Communications, is based on the analysis of fossils found at various sites […]
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Homo sapiens Interbred with Neanderthals in Eurasia for 7,000 Years in a Genetic Exchange That Occurred 47 Millennia Ago
Research into ancient DNA has revolutionized our understanding of human evolution, unraveling the intricate genetic ties between modern humans and their closest relatives, the Neanderthals. A recent study conducted by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the University of California, Berkeley, reveals how interactions between the two species left an indelible […]
Posted inStone Age Archaeology
Sequencing of the Oldest Human Genome in Southern Africa Shows Similarity to Current Ethnic Groups
A team of researchers, composed of specialists from the University of Cape Town, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, and the University of Valencia, has made significant advances in understanding the genetic history of humans in southern Africa. Through the analysis of human remains discovered at the Oakhurst rock shelter, these scientists […]
Posted inStone Age Archaeology
How were adolescents in the Ice Age, some 24,000 years ago, like? A new study explains
A groundbreaking study recently published in the Journal of Human Evolution has shed light on the lives of Ice Age adolescents, revealing that they underwent puberty stages quite similar to modern-day teenagers. This research fills a significant gap in our understanding of human growth during the Pleistocene epoch, around 25,000 years ago. Led by paleoanthropologist […]
