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A look at the Maba hominin skull

Found in 1958, the skull is one of a handful of fossil hominins from southern China that may be connected with the Denisovans.

Photo of partial skull from Maba, China, in frontal (left) and right lateral (right) view with black background
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The contribution of segmental duplications to human diversity

New studies based on long-read sequencing open a new way of looking at variation of these structural variants.

Illustration of DNA against a painted blue sky
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A look at the fossil skull from Steinheim

The skull provides some of the best evidence for the ancestral population of Neandertals, and had a tumultuous history in the decades after its discovery.

Steinheim skull in grayscale image in a museum exhibit
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Top 10 discoveries about ancient people from DNA in 2024

New resolution is emerging of some events in ancient human populations, and a clearer view of some parts of the genome.

Art illustration of DNA strands
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A sad end for the Journal of Human Evolution

A joint statement announces the resignation of the entire editorial board, while disclosing for the first time the use of AI in article production.

Closeup of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man sketch, focusing on head, trunk, and right arm
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Did scientists miss a fake Neandertal for 25 years?

An investigation claims dozens of cases of misdated bones in Rheinland-Pfalz, including the purported Ochtendung Neandertal.

Skull portion of the Ochtendung supposed Neandertal
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When hominins walked in each others' tracks

A new study by Kevin Hatala and coworkers finds that Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei walked on the same shores within hours of each other.

An array of 15 different hominin footprints showing varied preservation and shapes
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“Lucy”, superstar of evolution, at fifty

Today's science has broadened enormously since the 1970s but the iconic fossil still has an important place in understanding our ancient past.

The skull fragments, ribs, arm bones, pelvis, and femur of the Lucy skeleton are visible in this photo
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A look at the Neanderthal from Altamura

The exceptional skeleton encased in calcite has started to yield insights about early Neanderthals.

A skull and other bones encased with coralloid calcite encrustation
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Late Neandertals: more diverse than most scientists thought

The new “Thorin” genome from Grotte Mandrin represents a previously-unknown Neanderthal deep history.

Fragments of a jaw with teeth visible in an archaeological site