John Hawks

Woman the hunter, bonobo style

Females lead bonobo hunts, raising interesting questions for hominin hunting

Oct 24 • John Hawks

83

6

22

Denisova Cave mystery yak

DNA from bone fragments reveals lost populations of bovines in the cold caves of Central Asia.

Oct 8 • John Hawks

75

10

14

September 2026

A visit to Vanguard Cave, a Neanderthal workshop

The site has seen remarkable discoveries over 30 years, and excavations have opened a new unexplored chamber.

Sep 27 • John Hawks

69

12

Grieving for infants by primate and hominin mothers

Studies of nonhuman primates have documented days up to months of carrying infants after death.

Sep 20 • John Hawks

53

7

New Denisovans from China’s southwest

The site of Bianfu Cave provides evidence that this group spanned all of China during the later Middle Pleistocene.

Sep 9 • John Hawks

101

4

21

August 2026

Modern humans evolved from an 80-20 mixture of two deep streams

Genome models are converging on a scenario in which two stem lineages separated 1.5 million years ago, and merged together 300,000 years ago.

Aug 25 • John Hawks

249

26

49

Legs of the last Denisovans

Two bones from the floor of the Penghu Strait reveal some of the latest evidence of Denisovan survival.

Aug 8 • John Hawks

93

1

19

How Neanderthal ancestry affects growth and muscle

Study of a Neanderthal-derived haplotype of GHR show effects on height and lean body mass

Aug 6 • John Hawks

72

2

13

The big feet of Paranthropus boisei

New analysis of footprint trackways suggest a larger body size than previously thought for this Early Pleistocene human relative.

Aug 2 • John Hawks

55

8

July 2026

Traces of insect DNA in dental calculus may reveal bug-eating past

A study finds that Neanderthals had comparable insect trace evidence as gorillas and western chimpanzees.

Jul 18 • John Hawks

61

15

June 2026

The first molecular data from Homo naledi

Protein data from the Rising Star cave system show the known sample of this species is entirely female.

Jun 24 • John Hawks

89

2

15

How many Denisovan ancestors?

New studies magnify the observation that three groups of Denisovans may have contributed to many living people's genomes, but I find some unanswered…

Jun 19 • John Hawks

67

8

12