early humans

Fossilized human footprints shown at the White Sands National Park in New Mexico. According to a report published in the journal Science, the impressions indicate that early humans were walking across North America around 23,000 years ago.

Science

Ancient Footprints Suggest Humans Lived In The Americas Earlier Than Once Thought

4:07pm September 24, 2021

by Scott Neuman

A team of scientists dated the footprints along an extinct lake bed in New Mexico and found them to be between 21,000 and 23,000 years old — far older than reliable evidence has suggested to date.

Close-up of modern flax cordage showing twisted fiber construction.

Science

The Oldest String Ever Found May Have Been Made By Neanderthals

9:29am April 10, 2020

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

Bits of twisted plant fibers found on a stone tool show that Neanderthals used sophisticated yarns and cords. It pushes the date of the earliest-known fiber technology way back in time.

An artist's rendering of DNA. Scientists have found traces of DNA that they say is evidence that prehistoric humans procreated with an unknown hominin group in West Africa.

'Ghost' DNA In West Africans Complicates Story Of Human Origins

4:51pm February 12, 2020

by Merrit Kennedy

Modern genomes from Nigeria and Sierra Leone show signals that scientists call "ghost" DNA — from an unknown human ancestor. That means that prehistoric humans likely procreated with an unknown group.

Neanderthals are believed to have relied on dangerous close range hunting techniques, using non-projectile weapons like the thrusting spears depicted in this artist's rendition.

Science

Maybe Neanderthals Weren't Quite So Nasty And Brutish

3:44pm November 14, 2018

by Merrit Kennedy

New research finds they sustained skull injuries at about the same rate as early modern humans. "I definitely think that it's evidence these guys were not beating each other up," one expert says.

This is a skull of Homo naledi from the Rising Star cave system in South Africa.

Primitive Humanlike Species Lived More Recently Than Expected

7:49pm May 09, 2017

by Merrit Kennedy

The surprising finding suggests that small-brained Homo naledi may have lived at the same time as early humans in South Africa, complicating previous notions about human origins.

Capuchin monkeys use a detached flake as an active hammerstone, possibly in order to produce quartz dust.

Science

Those Ancient Stone Tools — Did Humans Make Them, Or Was It Really Monkeys?

8:44pm October 19, 2016

by Christopher Joyce

Capuchin monkeys in Brazil have been seen making sharp stone flakes. It was previously thought that only humans and their ancestors had flaking skills.

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Among the hominin fossils found at the Mata Menge site on the Indonesian island of Flores was part of a lower jaw.

Fossils Suggest That Island Life Shrank Our 'Hobbit' Relatives

8:30pm June 08, 2016

by Christopher Joyce

Scientists say tiny bones dating back 700,000 years on the Indonesian island of Flores shine new light on how these mysterious, 3-foot-tall creatures got that way.

Up Late? Looks Like Our Paleo Ancestors Didn't Sleep Much Either

4:03pm October 15, 2015

by Angus Chen

It's tempting to think that our forebears got lots of blissful snooze time. But modern-day hunter-gatherers aren't getting more than 6.5 hours a night, researchers say. And that's without smartphones.

National Geographic paleoartist John Gurche used fossils from a South African cave to reconstruct the face of Homo naledi, the newest addition to the genus Homo.

South African Cave Yields Strange Bones Of Early Human-Like Species

12:38pm September 11, 2015

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

Deep inside a rocky chamber, reached by a narrow crevice, researchers found more than 1,500 fossilized bones of what may be the gravesite of a creature never before identified by science.

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The area around the confluence of the Silverthrone and Klinaklini glaciers in southwestern British Columbia provides a glimpse into how the terrain traveled by Native Americans in Pleistocene times may have appeared.

2 Gene Studies Suggest First Migrants To Americas A Complex Mix

2:42pm July 22, 2015

by Christopher Joyce

Scientists assume a wave of people from what's now Siberia crossed into North America via Alaska, maybe 23,000 years ago. Genetics support that, but may also suggest another wave from Australasia.

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