Two dental experts explain that these furthest-back molars may be a not-so-necessary leftover from early human evolution.
Articles on Australopithecus afarensis
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Walking has taken a very long time to develop, with evidence of bipedalism among early humans in Africa roughly 4.4 million years ago.
Our findings reveal the slowing down of brain development in our ape-like ancestors began more than three million years ago.
The hominin known as Lucy may not be the direct ancestor of humans.
Recent research suggests that humankind’s origins lay outside of Africa. This is the nature of science: a paradigm that cannot be questioned on a regular basis becomes a dogma.
Anthropologists gather clues about how our ancient ancestors lived from their teeth. What will future anthropologists make of us based on the fossilized pearly whites we’ll leave behind?
Despite claims about its age, puzzling combinations of features from Homo naledi gives it an uncanny resemblance to human beings.
Top contributors
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Professor of Anthropology, The Ohio State University
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Paleoanthropologist, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Associate professor in Vertebrate Palaeontology, University of the Witwatersrand
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Professor of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences and Human Genetics, University of Pittsburgh
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Group Leader, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
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Professor in the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution & Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University
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PhD Candidate of Anthropology, Natural History Museum
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Professor of Anthropology, University of Tennessee
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Professor, University of Chicago
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Professor of Dental Medicine, University of Pittsburgh