13+ hour, 57+ min ago  (548+ words) An analysis of tooth proteins suggests all 23 Homo naledi individuals found in the Rising Star cave in South Africa were female, which strengthens the case that they were placed there deliberately A Homo naledi skull Peter van Evert/Alamy A…...

1+ week, 14+ hour ago  (985+ words) DNA evidence shows that plague bacteria devastated a community in Siberia more than 5000 years ago, challenging the idea that there were no major disease outbreaks before the advent of farming and large settlements The shared grave of a boy and…...

2+ week, 1+ day ago  (767+ words) Scrape marks inside a skull and sharpened limb bones in a set of remains found in Scotland may be evidence of unusual Iron Age funerary rituals Fragments of the skull (left) and shoulder blades (right) of a woman buried at…...

3+ week, 14+ hour ago  (338+ words) A review of the available scientific literature presents a mixed picture, notes one reader Do left- and right-handedness (or left- and right-leggedness) exist in animals? For instance, does a dog mostly lift its right or left hind leg to urinate,…...

1+ mon, 1+ week ago  (579+ words) A Neanderthal tooth shows clear signs of human intervention to treat bacterial decay, showing that the earliest dentistry began at least 59, 000 years ago Three views of the Neanderthal tooth with evidence of dental treatment Hexian Culture, Tourism and Sports Bureau,…...

1+ mon, 1+ week ago  (480+ words) Six teeth roughly 400, 000 years old have yielded some of the first ancient proteins thought to belong to Homo erectus, providing molecular clues to their relationships with other hominins A tooth found in Sunjiadong, China, thought to belong to Homo erectus…...

1+ mon, 1+ week ago  (935+ words) Genetic analysis of 1039 people buried in Britain between the Bronze Age and the Norman conquest highlights the impact of the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings on the island's ancestry Boudica led an uprising against the Romans in around AD 60, as depicted…...

2+ mon, 1+ week ago  (565+ words) A detailed analysis of the best-preserved Neanderthal infant skeleton ever found suggests that our ancient relatives grew much faster as young children Reconstruction of a family of Neanderthals Neanderthal babies may have physically dwarfed their Homo sapiens'counterparts, according to a…...

3+ mon, 3+ week ago  (569+ words) Genetic evidence hints that there was a strong bias for male Neanderthals and female humans to mate, rather than any other combination Model of a Neanderthal man at the Natural History Museum in London When our species and Neanderthals interbred,…...

2+ mon, 4+ week ago  (841+ words) Researchers have re-analysed a set of elephant bones and a wooden spear found in Germany in 1948, which provide compelling evidence of Neanderthals' big game hunting abilities Elephant bones from Lehringen, Germany, bearing marks of butchery by ancient humans VOLKER_MINKUS In the…...