John Hawks

John Hawks

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history of paleoanthropology

A Neanderthal time capsule from Grotta Guattari
Excavations of a new chamber reveal an ancient floor with more than a dozen new Neanderthal fossil remains.
 • John Hawks
Ten years of Homo naledi in my world
I reflect on the experience since the scientific description of the species was published in 2015
 • John Hawks
Human origins science in 1925: the good, the bad, and the fake
As I look back at a sometimes-confusing picture of a science in its early days, I see some connections with today's landscape.
 • John Hawks
How evolution became a uniquely American controversy
Setting the stage for the battle over classroom teaching as I prepare for the centennial of the 1925 Scopes Trial.
 • John Hawks
Lucy's upcoming Prague visit brings memories of controversy
Scientists resisted the last U.S. tour of the famous fossil. I look into the reasons why some researchers still oppose public exhibit of human…
 • John Hawks
How do hominin fossils get their numbers?
Numbers for fossils, like AL 288-1, are nowhere near as iconic as names like “Lucy”, but have an important place in the study of paleoanthropology.
 • John Hawks
Gathering the Ancestors
The largest exhibition of hominin fossils in history brought together science, the public, and geopolitics at the height of the Cold War.
 • John Hawks
The circumstances of the Taung discovery
The textbook story of the fossil leaves out a wider context in which scientists interpreted the first evidence of Australopithecus.
 • John Hawks
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.
 • John Hawks
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…
 • John Hawks
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.
 • John Hawks
Did scientists miss a fake Neanderthal for 25 years?
An investigation claims dozens of cases of misdated bones in Rheinland-Pfalz, including the purported Ochtendung Neanderthal.
 • John Hawks
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