Morocco: ancient fossils shed light on a key period in human evolution
The discovery points to a long evolutionary history in north Africa, much earlier than modern Homo sapiens.
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New clues from 2 million‑year‑old tooth enamel tell us more about an ancient relative of humans
Researchers have extracted 2-million-year-old protein remains from Paranthropus robustus teeth to reveal biological sex and genetic variability.
How a changing landscape and climate shaped early humans
It should not be a surprise that East Africa was a hotbed of evolution, because over the last five million years everything about the landscape has changed. The extraordinary forces of plate tectonics…
What would it mean to decolonise palaeontology? Here are some ideas
Ancient indigenous people often collected fossil shells, teeth and bones that have provided critical clues about human origins.
South African hominin fossils were sent into space and scientists are enraged
Experts insist there is no scientific reason for allowing these fossils to travel to space.
Human ancestors may have spread to north Africa earlier than thought, stone tool discovery suggests
New discovery could be a game changer for archaeology.
Fossil tooth fractures and microscopic detail of enamel offer new clues about human diet and evolution
The genus Paranthropus stands out in our human family tree because of their massive back teeth, but new techniques suggest we should throw out the hypothesis they mainly ate hard seeds and nuts.
Ancient toe gets a foothold in bipedal evolution
A report published today in Nature by Yohannes Hailie-Selassie and co-workers outlines the importance to our evolutionary story of some very ancient foot bones discovered recently in the Rift Valley of…
Meet 3‑million‑year‑old Lucy – she’ll tell you a lot about modern African heritage
When it comes to valuable African fossils, much is at stake. They often unearth disputed ways of debating archaeology as a science of ‘discovery’.
Life in fossil bones: what we can learn from tiny traces of ancient blood chemicals
A new way of analysing fossils has revealed more about animals and environments of ancient times, when humans were evolving.
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