South Africa
Plant-eating and meat-eating in Australopithecus
A new approach to sampling nitrogen-15 in tooth enamel opens a window into the diets of early hominins.
Research highlight: Brain of the Taung Child
A new study of the endocast discovered a hundred years ago asks, what if we found this fossil today?
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.
Finding ancient fire use in the Rising Star cave system
The study of the underground landscape enters a new phase with evidence of charcoal and burned animal bone in deep chambers.
How old is the "early Homo sapiens" skull from Florisbad?
Introducing a new preprint in which I examine critically the evidence for a skull thought to be contemporary with Homo naledi.
Cooking rhizomes in the Middle Stone Age
Border Cave has exceptional preservation of plant remains, giving a window into the diets of hominins.
Return of the “amazing” Boskops
Bringing some scientific reality to an excerpt from a book that tries to revive the myth of an ancient, large-brained race of humans.
The “amazing” Boskops
A book tries to revive the myth of a large-brained ancient race in southern Africa. It was wrong in 1958 and remains wrong today.
Did giant humans walk the Middle Pleistocene earth?
A National Geographic documentary program prompts questions about some fossils from South Africa with large body size estimates.