Oldest Known Human Ancestor

Researchers have unearthed a jawbone in Ethiopia of an as-yet unnamed Homo ancestor dating back about 2.8 million years, more than 400,000 years earlier than the oldest previously known human fossil evidence and supporting timelines of the transition of our species from Australopithecus to Homo.

Homo erectus Art on Seashell

A pattern recently discovered on a seashell originally discovered Java in the 1890s reveal 500,000-year-old deliberate engravings ascribed to Homo erectus, the first evidence of abstract thought from that extinct hominid species.

Earliest Non-African Footprints

Scientists have discovered the first fossilized human footprints outside of the African continent on a Happisburgh beach on the eastern side of England, dating back 800,000 years and providing direct evidence of the earliest known humans in Northern Europe.

"Ardi" Links to Human Lineage

New research comparing the well-preserved cranial base of the contested 4.4 million-year-old African primate species Ardipithecus ramidus ("Ardi") found in Ethiopia reveals a closer evolutionary relationship to Australopithecus and modern humans rather than to apes, placing the species in the human evolutionary lineage.

Oldest String Found

Researchers have found an artifact of twisted plant fibers at a site in southeast France dating back 90,000 years, providing evidence that the manufacture of string and cordage may have been known and used by Neanderthals before the arrival of Homo sapiens in Europe.

Complete Skull of Homo erectus

Anthropologists have found the entire skull of a Homo erectus dating back some 1.8 million years in Georgia, the earliest complete specimen yet found and so perfectly preserved it suggests the human ancestor was more variable in appearance than previously believed with several classified subspecies such as H. habilis and H. rudolfensis simply belonging to this single species.

Oldest Primate Fossil Found

Scientists have discovered the near-complete fossil remains of a tiny ancestor (Archicebus achilles) of the tree-dwelling primates called tarsiers that lived 55 million years ago, providing the earliest evidence of the split of the tarsier and anthropoid groups and the earliest primate fossil yet recorded.

Cooking Made Us Human

A new study links the surge in human brain size 1.8 million years ago to the advent of cooking our food, separating Homo erectus from the other primates' inefficient raw diet by unlocking 100% of the digestible nutrition in cooked foods for calorie-expensive brain growth.

Stone Age Dental Filling

Locked away in a museum for 101 years, recent x-ray imaging of a 6500-year-old fossilized jawbone originally found in Slovenia reveals an artificial beeswax filling perfectly filling a cavity on a cracked canine tooth, the oldest known example of Neolithic dentistry.

Two New Human Ancestors

New fossil finds east of Lake Turkana in Kenya of a skull and parts of a jaw confirm two previously unknown species of our genus (Homo) living alongside our direct human ancestor, Homo erectus, almost two million years ago.

Neanderthals Cooked Vegetables

A new examination of the dental plaque collected from Neanderthal fossils reveals a range of carbohydrates and starches as well as phenols and hydrocarbons, meaning the extinct species of hominids were not just strict carnivores but also smoked and roasted plants and vegetables as part of their diet.

More First American Ancestors

Analysis of stone tools and DNA from human coprolites found in the Paisley Caves in Oregon prove to be about 14,300 years old and different from the Clovis population, providing evidence for a distinct fourth prehistoric human settlement of North America from Asia.

Mammoth Butchered by Humans

The remains of a woolly mammoth discovered on the Siberian plains estimated at 10,000 years old show evidence of human butchering after death, including removal of internal organs, the skull, pelvis, ribs and other bones and then the burial of the remaining carcass, presumably an early effort at preservation.

Ash Shows Origins of Cooking

Ash of burnt grass, leaves, brush and bone fragments found in the Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa shows that hominins were using fire to cook food at least occasionally some 1 million years ago, the earliest evidence yet found for this practice.

Ancestor Had Ape-Like Feet

A fossil found in Ethiopia suggests a separate and distinct branch of hominins lived with our human ancestors (Australopithecus afarensis) about 3.4 million years ago, this new branch having grasping feet and suggesting a life primarily lived in trees whereas the foot for Au. afarensis had already adapted for upright walking.

Red Deer Cave People

A distinctive skull and other evidence found in southwest China suggests a new species of hominids called the Red Deer Cave people may have arisen in parallel to Neanderthals in Africa and Europe some 200,000 years ago, although the relationship between the two species is still unclear.

First Americans from Europe

A new theory proposes the first Native American peoples came from migration of the Solutrean people from northern Spain and France based on similar tools found in the eastern United States dated thousands of years earlier than the Clovis civilization, allegedly crossing the Arctic ice instead of a Siberian land bridge.

First Neanderthal Cave Paintings

Paintings found in the Nerja caves in Malaga, Spain, are the oldest yet found -- radiocarbon dated to about 43,000 years ago -- but also the first paintings to be left by Neanderthals, previously believed to be too primitive for representational art.

Full Genome of Extinct Humans

Researchers have completed deriving the entire genome of a previously unknown extinct line of humans, a group closely related to Neanderthals called Denisovians, from a small fragment of a finger bone found in the Denisovia Cave in southern Siberia.

Russian Origin for First Americans

New genetic research has revealed a link between Native American populations and the indigenous groups of the Altay Mountains of southern Siberia dating back about 18,000 years, suggesting a possible origin point for the descendants of the original North American settlers.