Blog articles
How much Neandertal DNA do today's African peoples have?
New research shows that today's populations in Africa have around one third the Neandertal ancestry as people in Eurasia.
The transition to Middle Stone Age from Acheulean did not make humans more deadly
Reading a meta-analysis of faunal data by Geoff Smith and coworkers that concludes that all Middle Pleistocene African peoples hunted the same prey animals.
An enormous sample sheds light on the Denisovan ancestry of people in Iceland
Laurent Skov and coworkers have measured the very small amount of DNA shared within the Iceland population from Denisovan ancestry and they discuss several scenarios for how it may have gotten there.
Chicken ancient DNA and artificial selection during medieval times
A study on change in European chickens over time illuminates the challenge of studying selection in populations with immigration from other sources.
How much have baboons and geladas hybridized during their evolution?
Examining a paper that uses Alu insertions as a probe for ancient reticulation in the papionin tree of relationships.
There are no “anatomically modern” elephants. Why do we treat humans differently?
A quote from Phillip Tobias illustrates the strange way that we talk about human variation compared to other species.
Lecture: How Homo naledi matters to our origins
A lecture in 2020 covering some of the latest research and new questions arising from the Rising Star cave system.
Research highlight: Introducing a juvenile skeleton of Homo naledi
We put together excavation records, 3D imagery, and laboratory analysis of bones and teeth to understand the preservation of a skeleton from the Dinaledi Chamber.
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.
Evidence of cooking rhizomes from an early Middle Stone Age context in Border Cave, South Africa
Border Cave has exceptional preservation of plant remains, giving a window into the diets of hominins.
