Blog articles
Research highlight: Homo naledi teeth
In a massive new paper, a team led by Lucas Delezene provides descriptions of the dental evidence from the Dinaledi Chamber.
Ghostbusters of human origins
Humans tend to mix and interact with each other. Geneticists are once again starting to take that seriously, changing their view of our origins.
Did two pulses of evolution supercharge human cognition?
An intriguing new study tries to tabulate the ages of genetic variants associated with human phenotypes, but its claims about recent brain evolution may not pan out.
Lecture: Finding ancient minds in the human evolutionary tree
Insights into the behavioral capabilities of ancient human relatives are beginning to show that some of the abilities we consider human go surprisingly deep in our ancestry.
What color were Neandertals?
Even with whole genomes, scientists can't say very precisely what pattern of skin, hair, and eye pigmentation was in ancient populations like the Neandertals.
New evidence is revealing the ages of death, birth, and menarche in Neandertals
Analysis of dental cementum is yielding new insights into the ages when ancient people faced significant physiological stresses.
Explaining the X chromosome hole in Neandertal ancestry
Natural selection reduced the variation on human X chromosomes in populations with the most Neandertal and Denisovan mixture. It may have been meiotic drive.
Many people have a little Neandertal in the brain. Does it matter?
Research has started to show the ways that introgressed genes from Neandertals affect brain shape in living people.
When did our ancestors start looking up to the stars?
Changes in the sky have been important to peoples throughout the world. That connection may go back much further than our species.
Solving the mystery of the Red Deer Cave people
New DNA evidence is revealing the genetic relationships of ancient groups from southern China, showing how they were connected to living people across the region.
