The Face of the Earliest Human Ancestor, Revealed Nearly 25 years after scientists described the first fossil traces of Australopithecus anamensis, this unsung human ancestor is finally having its moment. Researchers working in Ethiopia have found a nearly complete cranium of this long-vanished member of the hominin group, which includes Homo sapiens and its close …

Tests Indicate Bronze Age Daggers Had a Practical Purpose Analysis of Bronze Age daggers has shown that they were used for processing animal carcᴀsses and not as non-functional symbols of idenтιтy and status, as previously thought. This is a significant breakthrough as the new method enables the analysis of a wide variety of copper-alloy tools …

How Do We Know What Color Dinosaurs Were? No animals have experienced a more dramatic makeover in the past few decades than the nonavian dinosaurs. Animals we used to think had nothing but drab grey and brown scales are now believed to have flaunted feathers in bright colours and patterns.  So what colours were the …

Neanderthals Produced Symbolic Objects More than 115,000 Years Ago At least 70,000 years ago Homo sapiens used perforated marine shells and colour pigments. From around 40,000 years ago he created decorative items, jewellery and cave art in Europe. Using Uranium-Thorium dating an international team of researchers co-directed by Dirk Hoffmann of the Max Planck Insтιтute …

Ancient Human DNA Can Be Recovered from Archaeological Sediments, Finds Study Ancient human and animal DNA can remain stably localized in sediments, preserved in microscopic fragments of bone and faeces. Sediments in which archaeological finds are embedded have long been regarded by most archaeologists as unimportant by-products of excavations. However, in recent years it has …

Largest Human Family Tree Identifies Nearly 27 Million Ancestors A team of scientists has combined modern and ancient genomes to build a new “genealogy of everyone,” in an achievement that sets the groundwork for future studies into our evolution and global spread. Thousands upon thousands of modern and ancient human genomes have been integrated into a coherent …

Clues to Pacific Migration Paths Discovered in Papua New Guinea Scientists think they may have found the smoking gun that explains why humans colonised the thousands of scattered islands of the South Pacific – and it lies in a sherd of pottery found hidden on a small island in Papua New Guinea. The peopling of …

Blue-eyed humans have a single, common ancestor People with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor, according to new research. A team of scientists has tracked down a genetic mutation that leads to blue eyes. The mutation occurred between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. Before then, there were no blue eyes. “Originally, we all had …

The Earliest Form of Life From 4.28 Billion Years Ago Discovered Every time we keep on looking back in history to find the earliest traces of life we keep on finding earlier evidence of when life began on this Earth. There is a precise correlation between the prehistoric age and the size of evidence. A …